Anti-lynching Apology

I hear that the US Senate has issued an apology to victims of lynching and their descendants for failing to enact anti-lynching legislation over the last century or so. Now, I don't cotton to lynching any more than I approve of state sponsored murder, but what the hell are Senators doing making such an apology? It is fitting and proper to express regret, outrage, condolences, what have you, at the phenomenon of lynching. But by what right do these Senators apologize for their predecessors in declining to enact federal anti-lynching legislation?

Lynching is murder and the conspiracy to commit it by private individuals. Unless this happens on a federal enclave or there is some other basis for federal jurisdiction, our Constitution (when it meant something) does not authorize the United States to act in the matter. It is a state matter to be prosecuted at the state level, and every state has always had laws on its books that prohibited murder. For the federal government to exercise jurisdiction would have been a violation of the Constitution and an usurpation of state power. Senators might plausibly have voted to preserve the prerogatives of the states without being pro-lynching, and there is no reason for anyone to apologize for such a stance. There are legitimate arguments for limiting federal power, not the least of which is that the Constitution provides for this.

From the perspective of a states' rights advocate and a libertarian, the Senate ought to apologize for enacting a lot of legislation rather than its failure to enact an anti-lynching statute. They can start by apologizing for the Patriotic Act, the resolution authorizing military action in Iraq, and No Child Left Behind. That will do for the first day, and there will be enough aplogizing to do to keep the Senate busy for a hundred years.