Cato Institute’s Roger Pilon has a splendid piece in today’s Wall Street Journal entitled “Congress Rediscovers the Constitution.”

At least, some of the Republicans say they’re going to be serious about the Constitution. Let’s hope so.

Pilon observes that the Founders’ plan of limited, enumerated federal power with checks against abuse and usurpation was demolished during the New Deal by jurists who were imbued with “progressive” ideas about the good that expansive government could do. We are now paying dearly for all those advances in governmental power.

It’s worth mentioning that before the New Deal revolution, people who wanted to impose great changes at least had enough respect for the Constitution to try amending it rather than just passing a bill. Many proposed amendments failed, but one that passed, with the strong backing of the most powerful bunch of authoritarians of the early 20th century (the prohibitionists) did so much damage that it was subsequently repealed. Today’s authoritarians would no doubt have said that imposing Prohibition was merely a “regulation of interstate commerce.”