Posted on 07/18/2009 7:52:40 PM PDT by sovereignty2
A line was drawn in the sand last week - a response by the Federal Government to the State of Tennessee and their assertion of sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution.
Part of a series of moves by states seeking to utilize the Tenth Amendment as a limit on Federal Power, the Tennessee State Senate approved Senate Bill 1610, the Tennesse Firearms Freedom Act, by a vote of 22-7. It previously passed the House by a vote of 87-1.
The law states that “federal laws and regulations do not apply to personal firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition that is manufactured in Tennessee and remains in Tennessee. The limitation on federal law and regulation stated in this bill applies to a firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is manufactured using basic materials and that can be manufactured without the inclusion of any significant parts imported into this state.”
At the time of passage through the TN House and Senate, Judiciary Chairman Mae Beavers had this to say-
“Be it the federal government mandating changes in order for states to receive federal funds or the federal government telling us how to regulate commerce contained completely within this state – enough is enough. Our founders fought too hard to ensure states’ sovereignty and I am sick and tired of activist federal officials and judges sticking their noses where they don’t belong.”
The Federal Government, by way of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms expressed its own view of the Tenth Amendment this week when it issued an open letter to ‘all Tennessee Federal Firearms Licensees’ in which it denounced the opinion of Beavers and the Tennessee legislature. ATF assistant director Carson W. Carroll wrote that ‘Federal law supersedes the Act’, and thus the ATF considers it meaningless.
(Excerpt) Read more at tenthamendmentcenter.com ...
Push, meet shove.
All tho they are correct in their Constitutional view, it doesn’t matter. The 10th amendment has been totally erased by the courts. For all practical purposes it is not even in the Constitution.
Maybe some day we will return to real Constitutional rule but I am not holding my breath.
There is no case, Constitutionally, from the Federal standpoint. Not that that matters to political cronies, I mean judges.
Section 1 article 8 does not give the federal government the authority to form the ATF!
As I recall, many or most of the Federal gun laws specifically refer to a gun that has “moved in interstate commerce.”
I hope TN is ready to take this all the way
Perhaps that's because no federal court has the jurisdiction to hear this case in it's administrative form, and no federal court will agree to hear it in it's common law form.
Now they are trying to regulate carbon and oxygen which flow with the wind across states and continents.
Is TN receiving any federal funds for law enforcement, criminal-justice programs, and gun-related crimes?
"The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; ...."
The Constitution for the United States of America Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 ("1:8:1")
"No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken."
The Constitution for the United States of America Article I, Section 9, Clause 4 ("1:9:4")
Bingo I don't see it either ! what pinhead thought this up?
The Gov. let it become law without signing. In doing so, he said...
“This bill is not about firearms. It is about a fringe constitutional theory that I believe will be quickly dispensed with by the federal courts.
The Tennessee General Assembly lacks the Constitutional authority to limit the power and authority of federal government in this way…
…While I share the General Assembly’s commitment to federalism, this legislation contravenes our Constitution. I am allowing it to become law so that it can quickly be dealt with by the federal courts.”
BTW, he’s a Democrat.
Someone is arrested, by ATF, for violation of Federal law.
The attorney for that person is then free to make the Constitutional case, and inform the jury of the State opinion on the matter.
Jury nullification is the most likely outcome.
Which means it won’t get to SCOTUS, but it will send a message.
Holy crap...your governor said that?
Why don't you go on down to Tennessee and enforce your cute little letter there Madame Assistant Director.
L
But Sotomeyor will stop them because there is no precedent -- she always relied on precedent . /s
Wonder how she would rule. The CO2 was designated a pollutant so it could then be regulated by the EPA. Guess they will soon be regulating (with fines) marathons, sports matches and gyms for "excess production of CO2".
You suspect wrongly. Another Federal circuit has already decided that a machine gun manufactured in one State isn't subject to Federal laws if it never left the State in question.
The ATF of course ignored that decision.
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