States’ Rights and the Growing Rebellion – A Status
Report
Paul Hollrah
One of the inevitable
consequences of the last 75 years of Democrat rule in
Washington
– augmented by a decade or more of gutless
rule by Republican presidents and congressional
majorities who thought they could win hearts and minds
by imitating Democrats – is a quiet rebellion within
that basic building block of our American republic: the
state legislatures.
After many decades of
uninterrupted drift toward a socialist state, and seeing
a self-serving federal legislature and a bloated federal
bureaucracy whose incompetence is exceeded only by its
avarice, the legislatures of a number of states are
beginning to take matters into their own hands. They
rely on the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
which proclaims that:
“The powers not
delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the
States respectively, or to the people."
Accordingly, some eight
states, including Arizona,
Hawaii, Montana, Michigan, Missouri,
New
Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Washington,
are now considering either legislation or resolutions
designed to reassert powers usurped by a power hungry
federal establishment over the past 222 years. Typical
of the proposals now under consideration is Oklahoma
House Resolution 1003. Referring to the language of the
10th Amendment as its basis, the Resolution concludes:
“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT
RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATE
OF THE 1ST SESSION OF THE 52ND OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE:
“THAT the State of
Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over
all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the
federal government by the Constitution of the United
States.”
The resolution serves
notice on the federal government that it is to “cease
and desist” in the process of issuing mandates to the
State of Oklahoma that exceed the powers granted to it
by the U.S. Constitution, and it resolves that all
compulsory federal legislation which directs the state
to comply under threat of civil or criminal sanctions,
or which requires the state to take certain actions or
lose federal funding, shall be prohibited or repealed.
House Resolution 1003 is
similar to a resolution filed last year which passed the
Republican-controlled House by a vote of 92-3 but was
stalled in an evenly-divided Senate. Republicans gained
a clear Senate majority in November 2008
In New Hampshire, a
resolution reasserting States’ rights reads, in part, as
follows:
“Whereas the
Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, Part 1,
Article 7 declares that the people of this State have
the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as
a free, sovereign, and independent State; and do, and
forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power,
jurisdiction, and right, pertaining thereto, which is
not, or may not hereafter be, by them expressly
delegated to the United States of America…”
Proving once again that
the people of New Hampshire take seriously their state
motto, Live Free of Die, the Resolution concludes with
an ominous declaration, saying that any act of Congress,
any executive order of the President of the United
States, or any directive of the Federal Courts “which
assumes a power not delegated to the government of
United States of America by the Constitution… and which
serves to diminish the liberty of the several States or
their citizens, shall constitute a nullification of the
Constitution of the United States of America…”
In Missouri, House
Concurrent Resolution 0004 (2009) reasserts its
sovereignty based on Barack Obama’s stated intention to
sign into law a federal “Freedom of Choice Act.” The
Missouri Resolution reads, in part:
“Whereas, Barack Obama,
President of the United States, has promised that one of
the top priorities of his new Administration is to sign
into law the "Freedom of Choice Act" which purports to
classify abortion as a "fundamental right" equal in
stature to the right of free speech and the right to
vote – rights that, unlike abortion, are specifically
enumerated in the United States Constitution; and
“Whereas, the federal
Freedom of Choice Act would nullify any federal or state
law "enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or
after the date of [its] enactment" and would effectively
prevent the State of Missouri from enacting similar
protective measures in the future…”
“Now, therefore, be it
resolved that we, the members of the House of
Representatives of the Ninety-fifth General Assembly,
hereby declare our sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment
to the Constitution of the United States over all powers
not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal
government by the Constitution of the United States…”
In Montana, the House of
Representatives is considering a bill reasserting the
state’s sovereignty, using as a basis the 2nd Amendment
rights of the people of Montana. House Bill 246 reads,
in part, as follows:
“AN ACT EXEMPTING FROM
FEDERAL REGULATION UNDER THE COMMERCE CLAUSE OF THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES A FIREARM, A FIREARM
ACCESSORY, OR AMMUNITION MANUFACTURED AND RETAINED IN
MONTANA…
“The 10th amendment to
the United States Constitution guarantees to the states
and their people all powers not granted to the federal
government elsewhere in the Constitution and reserves to
the state and (the) people of Montana certain powers as
they were understood at the time that Montana was
admitted to statehood in 1889. The guaranty of those
powers is a matter of contract between the state and
people of Montana and the United States as of the time
that the compact with the United States was agreed upon
and adopted by Montana and the United States in 1889.”
In addition to bills and
resolutions already introduced in these states and the
legislatures of
Arizona, Hawaii, Michigan, and
Washington – telling the federal government to mind its
own business, the business specifically assigned to it
by the U.S. Constitution – similar proposals are under
consideration in Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California,
Colorado,
Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas,
Nevada, Maine, and Pennsylvania. The 20 states already
considering such proposals, or contemplating such
action, contain 40.2% of the total U.S. population.
In the year that the
U.S. Constitution was written, Thomas Jefferson said,
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time
with the blood of patriots and tyrants... God forbid we
should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion;
what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers
are not warned from time to time that their people
preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms."
Clearly, any careful
reading of the U.S. Constitution should convince the
reader that the primary building block of the American
republic is the state legislature. They are now drawing
a line in the sand and are reminding the three branches
of the federal government of their Constitutional
limitations. We hope that the course they have embarked
upon will continue to be a bloodless one. To insure that
it is, we should all lend our active support to the
state legislators. They are the Patrick Henrys of our
era.