General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The 2nd Amendment was NOT written "to protect us from our gov't," FFS... [View all]jberryhill
(62,444 posts)The thing is that, yes, it is the supreme law of the land. But when you combine that with the fact that it was considered "supreme" only with respect to federal issues, you end up back at the starting point.
Take the First Amendment, for example. If you read it quite literally, prior to the 14th Amendment, it only restricts what "Congress" can do in relation to the listed things. That's pretty specific, if you think about it.
Where the supremacy clause gets interesting is in the various cases dealing with situations in which the Constitution assigned a power to Congress, but Congress didn't, in a particular instance, exercise it. For example, can a state dam a navigable waterway used for interstate commerce in a situation where Congress, having supreme authority over that subject matter, hasn't said one way or the other.