"Shall not be infringed" is an absolute. That means NO ONE can infringe. The Constitution is set up to limit and apportion the various powers of the government among the branches of the Federal government and the States. So, how could the phrase "shall not be infringed" NOT apply to the government in its entirety.
The first amendment is the ONLY one which specifically makes reference to restricting only the powers of the Federal government. Why would the 1st Amendment be structured the way it is if the rest of the Bill of Rights was also intended to restrict only the powers of the Federal government? "Congress shall make no law..." would be redundant and unnecessary in that Amendment if the REST of the Bill of Rights also applied only to the Federal government.
The first amendment is the ONLY one which specifically makes reference to restricting only the powers of the Federal government. Why would the 1st Amendment be structured the way it is if the rest of the Bill of Rights was also intended to restrict only the powers of the Federal government?
Because 'Congress shall make no law' IS in the first Amendment, it makes it clear the other Amendments are also a restriction on Congress. It is the Bill of Rights for the federal enclave of Washington D.C.
If an Amendment has anything to do with a legislative body other than Congress, it says so...just like the earlier example of the word 'State' in the 6th and 10th Amendments.
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"Shall not be infringed" is an absolute. That means NO ONE can infringe. The Constitution is set up to limit and apportion the various powers of the government among the branches of the Federal government and the States. So, how could the phrase "shall not be infringed" NOT apply to the government in its entirety.
Because the States had the same provisions in their Constitutions as well.
Think about it..If the federal BOR was originally intended to cover the States, WHY did every state have almost exactly the same BOR? Why not just have written one and been done with it?
Because other than specifically enumerated authority of the Constitution, Congresses actual function was to serve as legislature for the federal enclave just like the state legislatures serve for the States.
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But if the government be national with regard to the operation of its powers, it changes its aspect again when we contemplate it in relation to the extent of its powers. The idea of a national government involves in it, not only an authority over the individual citizens, but an indefinite supremacy over all persons and things, so far as they are objects of lawful government. Among a people consolidated into one nation, this supremacy is completely vested in the national legislature. Among communities united for particular purposes, it is vested partly in the general and partly in the municipal legislatures. In the former case, all local authorities are subordinate to the supreme; and may be controlled, directed, or abolished by it at pleasure. In the latter, the local or municipal authorities form distinct and independent portions of the supremacy, no more subject, within their respective spheres, to the general authority, than the general authority is subject to them, within its own sphere. In this relation, then, the proposed government cannot be deemed a national one; since its jurisdiction extends to certain enumerated objects only, and leaves to the several States a residuary and inviolable sovereignty over all other objects. It is true that in controversies relating to the boundary between the two jurisdictions, the tribunal which is ultimately to decide, is to be established under the general government. But this does not change the principle of the case. The decision is to be impartially made, according to the rules of the Constitution; and all the usual and most effectual precautions are taken to secure this impartiality.
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The indispensable necessity of complete authority at the seat of government, carries its own evidence with it. It is a power exercised by every legislature of the Union, I might say of the world, by virtue of its general supremacy. Without it, not only the public authority might be insulted and its proceedings interrupted with impunity; but a dependence of the members of the general government on the State comprehending the seat of the government, for protection in the exercise of their duty, might bring on the national councils an imputation of awe or influence, equally dishonorable to the government and dissatisfactory to the other members of the Confederacy. This consideration has the more weight, as the gradual accumulation of public improvements at the stationary residence of the government would be both too great a public pledge to be left in the hands of a single State, and would create so many obstacles to a removal of the government, as still further to abridge its necessary independence. The extent of this federal district is sufficiently circumscribed to satisfy every jealousy of an opposite nature And as it is to be appropriated to this use with the consent of the State ceding it; as the State will no doubt provide in the compact for the rights and the consent of the citizens inhabiting it; as the inhabitants will find sufficient inducements of interest to become willing parties to the cession; as they will have had their voice in the election of the government which is to exercise authority over them; as a municipal legislature for local purposes, derived from their own suffrages, will of course be allowed them; and as the authority of the legislature of the State, and of the inhabitants of the ceded part of it, to concur in the cession, will be derived from the whole people of the State in their adoption of the Constitution, every imaginable objection seems to be obviated.