Intro 0:01 hi ron palmer here giving you an 0:03 introduction on chapter 9 of our book 0:05 not in the child's best interest so 0:07 chapter 9 talks about the united states 0:10 constitution and how the united states 0:11 constitution both sets up our government 0:14 and defines the supreme law of our land 0:17 and essentially it says that no law 0:20 that 0:21 exists in any state or no state 0:23 constitution 0:25 may exist if that law or that 0:28 constitution violates the united states 0:30 constitution the supreme law of our land 0:32 and this is very important because what 0:34 divorce courts are doing is quite 0:37 frankly purely unconstitutional McCulloch v Maryland 0:40 now 0:41 the idea that the constitution is the 0:43 supreme law of the land was decided way 0:45 back in 1819 by the united states 0:47 supreme court in a case called mcculloch 0:50 versus maryland very famous case and 0:52 basically what it said is 0:54 that everything we do has to conform to 0:57 the boundaries set by the constitution Federal Government 1:01 so it also defines our government our 1:03 federal government and it sets up three 1:06 coequal branches of government you have 1:08 the executive branch which is headed by 1:10 the president you have the legislative 1:12 branch which is congress the house of 1:14 representatives and the senate 1:16 and then you have the judicial branch 1:18 and this is set up primarily of the 1:20 united states supreme court but then 1:22 also a number of 1:24 and these courts are set up by the 1:26 legislator from time to time as they're 1:29 needed but ultimately all judicial power 1:32 rests with the supreme court of the 1:34 united states and they are the final 1:36 arbiters of all judicial issues Strong Central Government 1:39 now when the founders set up 1:41 the government this way they set it up 1:43 very intentionally 1:45 they were very afraid of a strong 1:47 central government remember we had just 1:49 overthrown a king 1:50 and most of the world was ruled by kings 1:53 and 1:54 we didn't want this our founding fathers 1:56 didn't want this they wanted a federal 1:58 government that was strong enough to 2:00 function we had a federal government in 2:02 the 10 years prior and it was just too 2:03 weak to function 2:05 so when we produced the constitution 2:07 part of the thing it tried to solve was 2:08 to create a government that was strong 2:10 enough to exist and to take care of the 2:13 the country the way the country needed 2:15 to be taken care of Three Branches of Government 2:17 but our founders didn't want any one 2:19 part of this government getting too 2:20 strong they certainly didn't want a king 2:23 to form 2:24 and so what they did was they created 2:26 three branches of government and they 2:28 vested partial power in each of these 2:30 branches and they expected these 2:32 branches to 2:34 fight with one another for power to 2:36 constantly be fighting back and forth 2:38 for power and you see this most often 2:40 between the legislature and the 2:42 executive branch and the president right 2:44 now there are lots of people complaining 2:46 that the executive branch has way 2:47 overstepped its power 2:49 and how it's invading privacy and 2:51 searching through your all of your 2:52 electronic data and 2:54 bugging your phones all these kind of 2:56 things and the legislature is starting 2:59 to assert its authority over that and 3:01 you also see the supreme court starting 3:03 to talk about asserting its power 3:05 to rein in the executive from what 3:08 they're doing and this is the way it's 3:09 set up purposely our founding fathers 3:12 wanted this to happen 3:14 now The Issue with Judges 3:15 there's an issue with some judges 3:17 and some of these judges believe 3:20 that the legislature should or should be 3:23 the supreme power and they defer to the 3:26 legislature and they don't really take 3:29 on their role as a co-equal branch of 3:31 government and this causes problems 3:34 and it essentially breaks the system 3:36 from the way our founders set it up 3:39 and what these judges believe is that 3:42 even if something might be 3:44 unconstitutional they'd like to defer to 3:46 the legislature and allow the 3:48 legislature to work it out even when the 3:50 legislature is denying fundamental 3:53 liberties to people fortunately for us 3:55 this is not the majority view of the 3:57 supreme court or the majority view of of 4:00 judges it's actually a fairly minority 4:02 view 4:04 and the supreme court does step in quite 4:07 often and tell the executive branch and 4:09 the 4:11 legislative branch when they overstep 4:13 when they pass laws that are 4:15 unconstitutional or when they take acts 4:18 that are unconstitutional The Balance of Power 4:20 and this is very important 4:22 and 4:23 they also 4:24 set up a balance of power between states 4:27 and the federal government 4:28 they wanted to make sure that the states 4:30 retained a lot of power and the federal 4:33 government only had that power that the 4:35 constitution granted to it 4:37 now in the beginning the 13 states that 4:40 created our constitution were all 4:42 individual states the individual 4:44 countries if you will that loosely 4:46 banded together 4:48 after the constitution 4:50 they became more of a single 4:53 entity under our federal 4:55 government but each state still retains 4:57 its sovereignty and certain control over 5:00 things and family law is one of the 5:02 areas where they retain most of their 5:05 authority however this authority is only 5:08 valid within the confines of the us 5:11 constitution they cannot violate the 5:13 constitution 5:14 when they establish family laws one of 5:17 the things that happened in the civil 5:19 war 5:20 after half of the states decided they 5:22 wanted to rebel and break away from the 5:25 union 5:27 once that was resolved militarily 5:30 there were a number of amendments the 5:32 13th amendment did away with slavery and 5:34 involuntary servitude the 14th amendment 5:38 applied the constitution to the states 5:41 now prior to the 14th amendment much of 5:43 what the federal constitution 5:46 many of the rights that the federal 5:47 constitution protected only protected 5:50 individuals against the federal 5:52 government it didn't protect individuals 5:54 against state action remember these are 5:56 sovereign entities 5:58 but after the 14th amendment 6:01 that changed and the 14th amendment 6:03 applied those protections to the 6:06 individual states 6:07 i'm getting ahead a little bit ahead of 6:09 myself because the 14th amendment is 6:10 discussed in chapter 10. all right so 6:13 one important concept you need to 6:15 get from all of this is that even though 6:17 the constitution articulate your your 6:20 rights many of them in writing many of 6:22 them not in writing even though it does 6:24 this you are still 6:27 going to be required to stand up and 6:29 assert your rights nobody is going to 6:31 give them to you freely 6:33 certainly not government government is 6:34 never known for giving out rights freely 6:37 we have to stand up and demand them we 6:39 have to stand up and fight for them and 6:41 part of what we're hoping to teach you 6:43 here is precisely how you can do this 6:45 effectively 7:22 you