During the debate over ratifying the US Constitution, James Madison ? known as the ?Father of the Constitution? -- explained: ?The powers delegated by the ... Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.?

The reserved powers of the States, Madison continued, would ?extend to all the objects which ... concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order ... of the State.? Under this assignment of powers, criminal justice and law enforcement were almost entirely the responsibility of the states, not the federal government.

At the time of the founding, there was a total of 17 offenses considered federal crimes. Today, there are thousands. Criminologist Ted Gest of the University of Pennsylvania points out that nearly half of those federal statutes were enacted since 1970. As Delaware Senator Joseph Biden cheerfully observes: ?We federalize everything that walks, talks, and moves.?

Where laws needlessly proliferate, liberty is doomed.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.