An IJ ad in the latest Liberty magazine highlights the case of a Vietnamese immigrant harmed by a local “sign licensing law”. The ad has the victim saying, “Thankfully, our Constitution protects my right to earn an honest living.”
Really? I must have missed that clause. This ad implies the Constitution is some magnificent sacred document that we are lucky to have, instead of the centralizing, disastrous result of the coup d’etat (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) that jettisoned the Articles of Confederation. Of course, by pretending to limit the fed to only a few narrow powers, none of which include the power to regulate one’s right to earn a living, the Constitution arguably protects this right from invasion by the federal government; but would one really expect libertarian centralists to strongly argue for lack of federal power? Why no, they need a broad grant of power to be able to supervise the states, which is what would be needed in this case, since the unlibertarian law at issue is a state law.See also:
- Huebert on libertarian centralism
- Healy versus Bolick and the Institute for Justice
- Huebert on IJ and vouchers (2)
- Constitution Worship Undermines the Cause for Freedom, by Mizzanuel Lora
