South Carolina Ping
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Posted on 03/04/2009 5:15:25 AM PST by kellynla
Last week, HUMAN EVENTS reported that eleven states, Washington, New Hampshire, Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas, had all “all introduced bills and resolutions” declaring their sovereignty over Obama’s actions in light of the 10th Amendment.
These actions are in response to the Obama administration’s faux-“stimulus” legislation which directly assaults the rights of states to reject the money coming from the federal government. So far, several Republican governors -- among them South Carolina’s Mark Sanford and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal -- have said they would refuse all or part of the stimulus money because of the constitutional infringements and because of the additional unfunded liabilities they impose on the states.
This week, HUMAN EVENTS is happy to report that five more states have decided to invoke the 10th as well.
These five -- Tennessee, Kentucky, Kansas, Indiana, and West Virginia -- have all begun their action under the 10th Amendment in a bid to protect themselves from what they view as nothing less than an unconstitutional usurpation of power on the part of the Obama administration.
On February 23, HJR 108 was put forth in the Tennessee legislature, indicating that legislators in that state decided “it [was] time to affirm state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and demand the federal government halt its practice of assuming powers and of imposing mandates upon the states for purposes not enumerated by the Constitution,” according to Truman Bean.
The very next day, February 24, Kentucky State Representative John Will Stacy (D), “introduced House Concurrent Resolution 168… serving notice to the federal government to cease mandates beyond its authority.”
In declaring their sovereignty these states have joined what has come to be known as “the 10th Amendment movement.” It is a grassroots, conservative movement that seeks to defend the separation of powers as originally set forth by our Founders in the Constitution.
Through this movement, conservatives are throwing down the gauntlet against tyranny and the abuse of power. They are invoking the 10th Amendment at the state level against abuses of power by the federal government, and doing so with appeals to the extra-constitutional writings of our Founding fathers.
For example, Indiana’s resolution calls attention to the words of Alexander Hamilton, a Federalist and Founder who “expressed his hope that ‘the people will always take care to preserve the constitutional equilibrium between the general and the state governments.’” Hamilton “believed that ‘this balance between the national and state governments forms a double security to the people. If one [government] encroaches on their rights, they will find a powerful protection in the other. Indeed, they will both be prevented from over-passing their constitutional limits by [the] certain [rivalry] which will ever subsist between them.’”
Kansas’ Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 1609 delves even deeper into the mechanics of the matter by reminding the Obama administration, as well as the House and Senate, that “the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the state.” In other words, the federal government exists by and for the states, not the other way around.
The resolution headed to West Virginia’s 79th Legislature couples its action under the 10th Amendment with a reminder directed to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.): “[The] United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states.” This reminder is followed by a pronouncement that “a number of proposals from previous administrations and some now pending from the present administration and from Congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States.”
In light of these violations of the Constitution, the stated purpose of West Virginia’s resolution is, in part, to “serve as Notice and Demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.”
Our rights as citizens are under assault by an administration of leftist ideologues with an insatiable appetite for power. There is little difference between them and the appeasement-drunken, government-expanding leftists in Lyndon Baines Johnson’s administration of whom Ronald Reagan said in 1964, “Inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government…and freedom is close to slipping from our grip.”
Every state assembly and legislature that has joined “the 10th Amendment movement” understands that Reagan’s words about freedom’s fragility in 1964 are no less true for our day when not only freedom, but also the America ideal, is “close to slipping from our grip.”
We must stand shoulder to shoulder with states like Tennessee, Kentucky, Kansas, Indiana, and West Virginia in demanding that the federal government immediately “cease and desist” its usurpation of our liberties.
In January 1800, the entire House went to the state legislature of Virginia. Both Virginia and Kentucky had petitioned the new federal government that the recent Alien and Sedition Act was unconstitutional. Madison wrote the report James Madison, Report on the Virginia Resolutions
The examination of this doctrine will be most conveniently connected with a review of a succeeding resolution. The committee satisfy themselves here with briefly remarking that, in all the contemporary discussions and comments which the Constitution underwent, it was constantly justified and recommended on the ground that the powers not given to the government were withheld from it; and that, if any doubt could have existed on this subject, under the original text of the Constitution, it is removed, as far as words could remove it, by the 12th amendment, now a part of the Constitution, which expressly declares, "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."
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IMHO, I wouldn't put too much faith in wikipedia's accuracy since entries can be altered by anyone.
I also don't put much faith in the 'secretly authored' theory. Not one thing I've ever read about the Founders would lead me to believe they were shy about their opinions.
South Carolina Ping
Add me to the list. / Remove me from the list.
Nevada is considering turning down strings-attached money.
Of course their son will be named BHO III, but his nickname could be Fidel, or Che, or Hugo, or Yasser, or Mahmoud or Karl or Vladimir.
The Constitution is the supreme law of the land and it provides for a republic of divided sovereignty. The states do not own absolute sovereignty any more than the general government does. "We the People" are sovereign under God. Some of the greatest governmental usurpations and oppressions in our history have marched under the banner of state sovereignty.
Naa, the looter guy would be overkill. I think it's perfect already.
A beautiful picture in soft colors...with that flyspeck of the Narcissist in Chief running all by his lonesome.
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Great pic, ForGod’sSake!
We didn't even know this was an issue much less being voted on. How are our representatives representing us when we're not even aware of what they're voting on?? I try to sign up for all the newsletters regarding issues up for vote but never heard about this. Ugh.
put the case of beer in Zero’s hands...
good compromise, I think.
Well, this is good news for Kansas, see everyone, not everything we do is goofy. (Sebelius)
Nam Vet
ping
I’ve yet too understand where in the hell our state reps of Alabama are! But, the I think both houses are dim controlled simply because of the large cities having more reps than the smaller areas, thus control.
"Virginia at last is considering asserting her rights under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution. HR61 was introduced 2/26/09, by Peace, Fralin, Byron, Cline, Cole, Gilbert, Landes, Lingamfelter, Marshall, R.G., Morgan, Ware, R.L. and Wright. Text of the bill: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?091+ful+HR61."
I support these fine folks here in Indiana. After reading this article, I called the senate office and registered my sons as pages. There are other areas where I will SUPPORT THESE MEN, but that will be between me and them.
GOD SAVE OUR AMERICAN STATES!
I second this motion!
Is that secession I see lurking on the horizon? Wish I’d see North Carolina’s name on this 10th amendment movement.
then it’s time to pass a non-enforcement resolution/law
You mean NULLIFICATION..?
That still doesn’t explain everything, because in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, there are a lot of rural, liberal areas. In MN and WI, conservatism mostly thrives in the suburbs.
Oh, I don't know. Maybe if we appealed to the governor and contacted our legislaters we could convince them to refuse federal values in order to maintain the honor and dignity of the Golden State.
Ha ha. Just kidding.
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