by Eric Dondero

Rhode Island is having a big debate right now over toughening the States' seat belt law. Same old story. The Feds are dangling dollars over the heads of Little Rhody legislators if they'd only enact a Primary law enforcement bill. This means cops could stop a non-wearer for no other reason than for violation of the seat belt law.

Of course, it's the Democrats who are proposing the legislation. The bill has been initiated by Rep. Douglas Gablinske.

But surprisingly Gablinske has been receiving a great deal of criticism, from various constituencies.

One of his biggest critics has been his own friend, columnist Jim Baron of Woonsocket. Baron makes a uniquely 10th Amendment argument on the issue.

From The Woonsocket Call, "We don't need a mandatory Seat Belt law" March 14:

Where are the Tenth Amendment people on this? There is a growing movement of folks out there, they seem to be one of the many tributaries to the larger Tea Party movement, who want to re-assert the force and effect of the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which says that any powers not directly granted to the federal government by the constitution, or denied to the states by the constitution are reserved to the states or to the people and the feds should keep their cotton-picking hands off it. (The constitution doesn’t have the cotton-picking part; I added that.)

Well, nowhere in the enumerated powers granted to the federal government does it say anything about seat belt laws. And the Congress knows that because it didn’t pass a seat belt law. No, instead it circumvented the constitution by misusing the public purse to bribe the states to do its bidding by offering them money. Sometimes, Congress does it the other way around, by misusing the public purse to extort states to do its bidding by threatening to withhold funds if they don’t.

The Tea Party movement has cleverly steered clear of social issues. But this is one area that could be considered a social matter - 10th Amendment and Federal Bribery of State Governments - that's a natural for Tea Party involvement.