Free Republic

'This is an issue where the federal government has no business' Montana statehouse Supporters of a first-of-a-kind law in Montana that declared weapons or ammunition made and kept in the state were exempt from federal rules are preparing for a court challenge to the federal government's insistence it will regulate those items. The Montana Shooting Sports Association and the Second Amendment Foundation have formed a strategic alliance with plans to litigate over the Montana Firearms Freedom Act. The bill was passed by the 2009 Montana Legislature and signed into law by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

The following was a prepared statement for the 10th Amendment Forum in Orlando, FL on 08-22-09 First of all, thank you for allowing me a few moments to be here with you today – it’s an honor to be able to speak with you, even if it’s from the other side of the country where I am here in Los Angeles, California. As the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center, I’m often asked – why the Tenth Amendment? Why do we need it? And I truly believe that’s just what people like you and I were asking back in the...

The state’s adjutant general of the South Dakota National Guard and Gov. Mike Rounds are among state leaders opposed to a Pentagon proposal involving control of how part-time military troops are used in any state. At the heart of the disagreement is who will command troops when they are sent to a particular state to deal with a hurricane, wildfire or other disaster. The military justifies a change in law as a natural extension of its use of federal forces. The governors see the Pentagon move as a strike at state sovereignty. Rounds agrees with the National Governors Association’s opposition...

The maps in this article will make you mad. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly referred to as the “stimulus bill,” was intended to jump-start the economy in the short term and fund long-term investments. Quick funding of state-based projects to fight the recession was a major rationale for expediting the law's passage. However, six months have passed and little of that money has been delivered. States with large per capita allocations probably expected a quick arrival of their recession-fighting funds. The state-by-state disbursement data tells a different story. When it comes to money actually paid out, many states...

Congress may confiscate every state pension fund into the bankrupt social security system. Indications that this strategy is being discussed in Washington have come in to us from several sources over the last few days. Tonight, a correspondent who has just come home from a Tea Party Townhall Meeting in Salado, Texas with US Representative John Carter (R-Round Rock) issued the warning. She said, "Representative Carter informed the crowd that talk has been bandied about Congress to appropriate every state's pension plans into the bankrupt Social Security System." She is absolutely 100% sure that she understood him correctly. Dear readers,...

The Supreme Court will consider two new cases on the scope of individuals’ Second Amendment right to have guns at its first Conference for the new Term, on Sept. 29, according to the Court’s electronic docket.  Both petitions challenge a Seventh Circuit Court ruling that the Amendment does not restrict gun control laws adopted by state, county or city government, but applies only to federal laws. The cases are National Rifle Association v. Chicago (08-1497 [1]) and McDonald v. Chicago (08-1521 [2]).The so-called “incorporation� issue is the most significant sequel issue raised in the wake of the Court’s 2008 decision...

The United States Constitution guarantees us numerous rights and liberties, but the ones most essential and inalienable are those of life, liberty, and property. As I am writing this entry, there are scores of constitution maggots in DC working to erode those very rights which we hold dear. The finest examples of this are the two pieces of legislation currently awaiting a vote; cap-and-trade and health care. These two pieces of legislation are heinous by design. Health care, simply put, gives the government command of every aspect of an individual’s life, effectively turning citizens into subjects. Once the government owns...

I missed this yesterday at Newsbusters but Treacher, rightly aghast, tipped me to it this afternoon. Never will you see a starker example of MSNBC getting away with the sort of deception for which Fox News would be pilloried, especially in the context of race. If you missed Monday’s post about this, go watch the footage (or look at this photo) and see if you can deduce why they wouldn’t want to show the guy with the rifle from the neck up during this particular segment. For all the well-deserved heat that MSNBC’s primetime line-up has taken for its demagoguery...

“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.” This is the simple but powerful text of the 10th Amendment to our Constitution. The first impression a reading of Obamacare’s scheme brings to mind are the many blatant violations of the 10th Amendment it contains. One such violation is the demand that ALL medical service providers and facilities be compelled to include on staff translators able to render “language-appropriate services” in potentially hundred of languages. Page 91 lines 4 – 7...

Transcript of remarks made by Leo Carrington (who doesn’t exist) to a mandatory meeting of all employees of Carrington Automotive Enterprises, Inc. (which doesn’t exist either) on August 17th, 2009 at the Royal Payne Hotel (a purely imaginary place) in Norfolk, Virginia (which does, in fact, exist). I would like to start by thanking you for attending this meeting, though it’s not like you had much of a choice. After all, attendance was mandatory. I’m also glad many of you accepted my invitation to your family members to be here as well. I have a few remarks to make to...

Introduced in the Michigan House on August 11, 2009, the “Firearms Freedom Act” (HB-5232) seeks “to make certain findings regarding intrastate commerce; to prohibit federal regulation of firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition involved purely in intrastate commerce in [the State of Michigan]; to provide for certain exceptions to federal regulation; and to establish certain manufacturing requirements.” The bill was authored by Rep. Phillip Pavlov and currently has 44 co-sponsors. While the HB5232’s title focuses on federal gun regulations, it has far more to do with the 10th Amendment’s limit on the power of the federal government. It specifically states: The...

No powers can be exercised by the Congress which are prohibited by the Constitution or which are contrary to its spirit. – Justice John McLean, Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857 Is a federal government takeover of the health care system constitutional? Some argue that under the Constitution, Congress is not authorized to regulate or subsidize health care. Michael Boldin, founder of The Tenth Amendment Center, told WND that if citizens want to understand whether health care is constitutional, they must first understand the function of the Constitution. "The best way to look at it is that it doesn't apply to...

Washington is selling servitude. * We watched as they destroyed the financial sector by forcing banks to give loans to people that could not afford them… then they stepped in to “save the day” by gaining direct control of our financial sector. * We watched as they destroyed a once powerful automotive industry through excessive regulation and labor union control… then they stepped in to “save the day” by gaining direct control of our automotive industry. * We listened as they verbally assaulted capitalism when government regulations were to blame. * We watched as they asked the American people to...

Article 3 in Series, Restoring Freedom: An Entrepreneur’s Perspectivepart 1, part 2We must bring our revolutionary product of individual freedom to market, and soon; otherwise servitude, Washington D.C.’s product of choice will monopolize and we will see out market share for freedom disappear and our great experiment in self-government fail.Crossing the Chasm, a book focused on bringing technology products to market, presents an analogy based on World War II Europe. After Hitler took control of Europe, the Allies were left without a front to counter Axis aggression. At the time many considered Europe lost. The Allies, faced with an impossible...

Introduced in the Michigan House on August 11, 2009, the “Firearms Freedom Act” (HB-5232) seeks “to make certain findings regarding intrastate commerce; to prohibit federal regulation of firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition involved purely in intrastate commerce in [the State of Michigan]; to provide for certain exceptions to federal regulation; and to establish certain manufacturing requirements.” The bill was authored by Rep. Phillip Pavlov and currently has 44 co-sponsors. While the HB5232’s title focuses on federal gun regulations, it has far more to do with the 10th Amendment’s limit on the power of the federal government. It specifically states: The...

A long-time federal prosecutor once told me that as long as elections put people into positions where they can make decisions about how much the government will spend, who will receive the money, and how the government will exercise its power, elections will be important enough to tempt some individuals to steal them. As the Supreme Court recognized when it upheld the constitutionality of Indiana's voter identification law in 2008, flagrant examples of voter fraud "have been documented throughout this Nation's history by respected historians and journalists." Those examples "demonstrate that not only is the risk of voter fraud...

On August 10, 2009, Alabama State Representative Mac Gipson along with 22 other co-sponsors, introduced House Joint Resolution 10 (HJR10). The purpose of the resolution is to “affirm the rights of all states including Alabama, based on the provisions of the ninth and tenth amendments to the United States Constitution.” HJR10 was introduced on the first day of the Alabama Legislature’s 2009 First Special Session. An Extraordinary (Special) Session can consist of no more than 12 Legislative (meeting) days, within a 30-day calendar period. The resolution was read and referred to the House of Representatives committee on Rules. Two similar...

TIME FOR SECESSION Human Events ^ | 10/15/52 | Frank Chodorov  By Frank Chodorov If I were governor of a state, or even a legislator, I would put my weight behind a secessionist movement; not secession from the Union, but secession from Washington. I would do so exactly because I favor the Union, as originally conceived and my advocacy of secession would be based on the same reasoning that prompted initiation of the Union, namely that divided authority is a good guarantee of freedom. The Union was—it still exists on paper—a voluntary association of autonomous states, each invested with...

The United States Senate recently voted on an amendment that would have allowed Right-to-Carry permit holders to carry in all other states that also grant carry permits. The amendment, sponsored by Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and David Vitter (R-La.), won a significant majority of votes, 58 to 39, but failed to reach the 60 votes needed to avoid a Senate filibuster. Anti-gun senators have long argued that the majority of Americans do not support firearm freedoms. They made this erroneous claim once again during the debate on the Thune/Vitter amendment. Now, a new poll has proven them wrong. Conducted by...

<p>MSNBC is having an on air meltdown over a man their camera crew videotaped openly carrying a handgun at an anti-Obama protest in Portsmouth, New Hampshire this morning near where Barack Obama will be holding a town hall meeting later today.</p>

Not since the rebellion in America was quashed in 1865 with the surrender of Robert E. Lee to Ulysses S. Grant has so much attention been paid to state sovereignty as is being paid today. More than 35 states have passed or are considering state sovereignty amendments, according to the Tenth Amendment Center. Just before leaving office, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin signed a bill declaring that state’s sovereignty, joining Tennessee Gov. Phil Bresdesen in that regard. States are finally becoming fed up with the increasingly dangerous non-Constitutional overreach of the Federal Government, and State Legislatures are working to stop it....

In 1798, the legislatures of Virginia and Kentucky approved resolutions that affirmed the states’ right to resist federal encroachments on their powers. If the federal government has the exclusive right to judge the extent of its own powers, warned the resolutions’ authors (James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, respectively), it will continue to grow – regardless of elections, the separation of powers, and other much-touted limits on government power. The Virginia Resolutions spoke of the states’ right to “interpose” between the federal government and the people of the state; the Kentucky Resolutions (in a 1799 follow-up to the original resolutions) used...

Remember the good old days, when one only had to watch out for the Federal Government’s twisted interpretation of the commerce clause to justify tyranny? Well those days seem to be long gone. The Obama Administration has been employing an old tactic lately – what some might call an imperial threat – and they’re not doing it overseas, either. The state of Oklahoma is now the target of a direct challenge from US Attorney General Eric Holder, who is using the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as justification to violate Oklahoma’s sovereignty as affirmed by the Tenth Amendment to the...

Programs that allow homeowners to trade in their old refrigerators and scoop up a rebate — a sort of “cash for clunkers” system for the fridge — are spreading quickly across the country. Last week, New Jersey began a statewide program that offers residents a $30 rebate by recycling eligible refrigerators or freezers. Old refrigerators and freezers in Vermont also fetch $30, under a program begun last month. Pickup is free in both states. National Grid began a similar program in June, in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. These programs target old refrigerators and freezers — the type often found in...

Does the Confederate Flag offend you? http://www.sodahead.com/question/537677/does-the-confederate-flag-offend-you/ I came across this question asked at SodaHead.com that has produced a lively discussion with over 2500 comments. I thought I would post it here at Free Republic and see if it gets a similiar response.

By Brian RobertsArticle 2 in Series, Restoring Freedom: An Entrepreneur’s Perspective – click here for part 1Washington is selling servitude. We watched as they destroyed the financial sector by forcing banks to give loans to people that could not afford them… then they stepped in to “save the day” by gaining direct control of our financial sector.We watched as they destroyed a once powerful automotive industry through excessive regulation and labor union control… then they stepped in to “save the day” by gaining direct control of our automotive industry.We listened as they verbally assaulted capitalism when government regulations were to...

Aiken County, SC—The legal drinking age in South Carolina could change if two recent court rulings are upheld. The rulings in Richland County and Aiken County challenge the state’s current drinking age of 21. According to “The State” newspaper, Aiken County’s Chief Magistrate Judge Rodger Edmonds ruled last month the law, and a similar one involving the possession and consumption of beer and wine in the 18-20 age group, were unconstitutional. So, do you think the legal drinking age in South Carolina should be lowered from 21? Let us know in our web poll below:

We knew it would come to this when Oregon insisted on passing its assisted-suicide laws. It doesn’t take much for assisted suicide to go from a humane option to a cost-saving device, especially when the state pays for the medical care. One patient in Oregon got a letter that made this all too clear, when in the same letter rejecting her request for life-extending chemotherapy, Oregon offered her “physician-aid-in-dying”. In other words, Oregon offered their customer a heapin’ helping of death: http://www.katu.com/news/26119539.html The doctor interviewed by the news station seems offended at the suggestion that Oregon would decide to save...

Do We the People really establish our government or is the government 'self-establishing'? Let me explain the basis for the question. The 10th Amendment is an interesting article because of more than just the fact that it advances the idea of delegated powers. Certainly it reserves any powers not so delegated to the several States — excepting those few expressly forbidden to the States in the federal Constitution. Most of the time when people talk about the 10th Amendment this is as far as it goes where their presented logics are concerned and they essentially fail to address the full...

Why are we destroying perfectly good tools as a nation with this "Cash for Clunkers" program? Here is a video on what they do to the vehicles that are traded in for this program. Here's a description from the video site: This is a video document showing how to seize an engine under the Cash for Clunkers program...After draining the engine oil the vehicle is filled with approximately two-three quarts of salt/water/silica mix. The vehicle is then started and ran till the engine seizes. Enjoy! I drive a 20 year old car that I love. (Sure it's bluebook value may...

CNN correspondent Carol Costello aired a fair report on Friday’s American Morning about the several states which passed resolutions that asserted their rights under the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and asked for viewer responses on the issue, but later stated that her “favorite [viewer] comment so far...‘asking for states’ rights is asking, you know, the children to be the parents’” [audio clips from the report are available here]. Costello began her report, which aired just before the bottom of the 6 am Eastern hour, with the question, “should states’ rights trump the fed?” She also highlighted the premise...

The House has passed a far-reaching food safety bill requiring more government inspections and imposing new penalties on those who violate the law, reacting strongly to an outbreak of salmonella in peanuts that killed at least nine people. The legislation would require greater oversight of food manufacturers and give the Food and Drug Administration new authority to order recalls. It also would require the FDA to develop a system for better tracing food-borne illnesses. Food companies would be required to create detailed food safety plans. President Barack Obama praised the bill soon after it was passed, calling it "a major...

Today, courts and commentators generally agree that early efforts to strictly limit the federal government to only expressly enumerated powers were decisively rebuffed by Chief Justice John Marshall in McCulloch v. Maryland. According to Marshall, the fact that the Framers departed from the language of the Articles of Confederation and omitted the term “expressly” suggested that they intended Congress to have a broad array of implied as well as expressly delegated powers. As Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story later wrote, any attempt to read the Tenth Amendment as calling for strict construction of federal power was simply an attempt to...

That's right, FAILS. No, you didn't hear it reported this way and won't, but that's the math. Here you have the results: . And here's the math: 1.923 BTC X 61.59% Primary Dealer bid = 1.18 BTC (PD), greater than 1.0. Or to put it a different way, but for the primary dealers the bid-to-cover was less than one, meaning that some of the issue would have been left on the table. Thats a fail; but for the primary dealers the issue would not have subscribed. Primary dealers are required to bid. That's the deal in exchange for their being...

On the heels of a successful state-level resistance to the 2005 Real ID Act, activists and state legislators alike are focusing their efforts on state governments as a way to resist new federal programs. The latest? Health Care. In response to what some opponents see as a Congress that doesn’t represent their interests, State Legislators are looking to the nearly-forgotten American political tradition of nullification as a way to reject any potential national health care program that may be coming from Washington. The most recent effort comes from Florida State Senator Carey Baker and State Representative Scott Plakon, who this...

Austin, Texas, and Washington are a little more than 1,500 miles apart, but the differences in governing philosophy could be measured in light years.Both towns feature well-intentioned public servants and impressive capitol domes, but they seem to represent the polar opposites in the ongoing debate over the benefits of limited government.In Texas, we have long based our approach on individual liberty and initiative, believing that families, entrepreneurs and individual citizens deserve the opportunity to strive and succeed -- with minimal government interference. After regular, 140-day legislative sessions every two years, Texas lawmakers go home to live under the laws they...

Article 1 in Series, Restoring Freedom: An Entrepreneur’s Perspective Imagine this… You and I are the founders of a start-up company. Our product is compelling. Our market is broad. We are underfunded, unorganized and unfocused. The press clearly doesn’t care about our efforts. Yet, we think we are going to take on the world. We are going to take on the largest, most powerful and monopolistic competitor possible. But we are not intimidated because the personal rewards of success are unimaginable and unlike our competitor’s offering our product will change the world for the better.So we are driven, like an...

The several states are lining up to reclaim their sovereignty and telling the federal government to butt out. This is being done in myriad ways but all are related in that most claim that the Tenth Amendment protects the states from federal tyranny. States are passing resolutions, memorials and two states have passed laws and they intend to apply those laws for their citizens. The two states are Montana and Tennessee. It was expected that at some point these laws would be challenged and it appears actions to do such has begun. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and...

Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal today transmitted the following memorandum and proposed resolution on state sovereignty to the Wyoming Legislature’s Management Council. MEMORANDUM To: Management Council Members From: Dave Freudenthal, Governor Date: July 28, 2009 Re: Sovereignty Resolution As you know, individual states have been adopting Sovereignty Resolutions over the past few years. Such resolutions have been considered by the Wyoming Legislature over the years as well. Representative Illoway is working on one for this session. The attached version expands slightly on the versions currently circulating. The resolution includes a list of specific federal laws and a reference to the idea...

Saying the federal government has taken too much control over Kansas affairs, some key state senators and a minor political party are supporting a resolution to affirm the state’s sovereignty. A resolution by Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawnee, calls on the federal government to “cease and desist” from withholding federal funds or otherwise penalizing states that don’t comply with federal mandates. The resolution cites the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reserves to the states powers that aren’t specifically granted to the federal government. Sovereignty, in this context, means the state retaining or regaining control of all powers not named...

Republican gubernatorial hopeful and Senate Minority Leader Paul McKinley blasted Democrats Monday for blocking a bill during this year’s legislative session asserting Iowa’s sovereignty under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Under the 10th Amendment, states and citizens retain all powers not specifically given to the federal government. In response to a story in the Omaha World Herald about a similar bill being considered in Nebraska, McKinley posted on his Twitter that Iowa Democrats are “obstructing my state sovereignty resolution.” The mostly symbolic bill, Senate Concurrent Resolution 1, doesn’t call for seccession from the union, only that the federal...

A new state law will allow police to arrest people who don’t leave town under mandatory evacuation orders. As it stands, officials cannot compel people to evacuate, only warn that those who stay behind won’t have any emergency services at their disposal. The new law gives county judges and mayors the power to authorize use of “reasonable force” to remove people from the area.

At least three Nebraska lawmakers want to send a message to the federal government: Butt out of state business. Next year they will see if a majority of their colleagues agrees. The senators are working on resolutions asserting Nebraska's sovereignty under the 10th Amendment of the Constitution. Nebraska wouldn't try to secede from the union under their proposals but would go on record objecting to federal laws that they say go beyond constitutional authority. “My goal here is to shine light on the fact that the federal government is overstepping its bounds,” said State Sen. Tony Fulton of Lincoln. “We...

Here is audio of Texas Gov. Rick Perry saying Thursday on the Mark Davis Show that if Obama's Government Health Care Plan passes Congress, there is "absolutely" a real possibility that Texas could refuse to participate under 10th Amendment State's Rights. . . . . . (Watch Video)

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry, raising the specter of a showdown with the Obama administration, suggested Thursday that he would consider invoking states’ rights protections under the 10th Amendment to resist the president’s healthcare plan, which he said would be "disastrous" for Texas. Interviewed by conservative talk show host Mark Davis of Dallas’ WBAP/820 AM, Perry said his first hope is that Congress will defeat the plan, which both Perry and Davis described as "Obama Care." But should it pass, Perry predicted that Texas and a "number" of states might resist the federal health mandate. "I think you’ll hear states...

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry, raising the specter of a showdown with the Obama administration, suggested Thursday that he would consider invoking states’ rights protections under the 10th Amendment to resist the president’s healthcare plan, which he said would be "disastrous" for Texas. Interviewed by conservative talk show host Mark Davis of Dallas’ WBAP/820 AM, Perry said his first hope is that Congress will defeat the plan, which both Perry and Davis described as "Obama Care." But should it pass, Perry predicted that Texas and a "number" of states might resist the federal health mandate. "I think you’ll hear states...

Just this week I was talking to a high level contact who had just talked with a member of the Homeland Security Dept. They revealed to him that Obama is planning to nationalize every security force that currently guards any military structure and all 800,000 Government buildings. Currently these buildings and facilities have been guarded by private security companies…..not when Obama is through. This will immediately put thousands of security companies and hundreds of thousands of workers out of business.

Rick Perry just stated on Mark Davis' show that Texas may use the 10th Amendment to reject Obamacare. Go Rick.

Last November, I wrote an update entitled, “Preparing for an Expansion of Government.” In that update, I referenced how that over time, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, both parties have used the expansion of federal government as a tool to accomplish their various agendas and in doing so violated the important concept of states’ rights. I also wrote about the possible upcoming expansion in the size and scope of the federal government due to the recent consolidation of liberal control over both the presidency and Congress. Since that time, I have been contacted by a number of worried constituents...

Gov. Sarah Palin has signed a joint resolution declaring Alaska's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution – and now 36 other states have introduced similar resolutions as part of a growing resistance to the federal government. Just weeks before she plans to step down from her position as Alaska governor, Palin signed House Joint Resolution 27, sponsored by state Rep. Mike Kelly on July 10, according to a Tenth Amendment Center report. The resolution "claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted...