I am of an age that my education required courses in civics and U. S. history. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what the United States was all about. In the last ten years, I have come to doubt that. I thought that Congress has the “power of the purse,” that is, the power to appropriate federal funds, and that appropriation bills, when passed, were law. I thought that the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations was exclusively a power of Congress. I thought the power to define and punish felonies committed on the high seas also belonged to Congress. At least, that’s how I read Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. I’m no lawyer, but I have a hard time understanding how Trump’s recissions, tariffs and blowing up boats in the Caribbean aren’t against the law. What am I missing here?

— Andrew Smith, Anchorage

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