22 states AGs and the state of VA have filed suits against the USG saying that the mandate is unconstitutional. The cases are working their way thru the courts.
-— 22 states AGs and the state of VA have filed suits against the USG saying that the mandate is unconstitutional. The cases are working their way thru the courts. -—
While there is nothing wrong per se with taking on the federal government in the federal courts... THIS kind of effort to resist unconstitutional federal mandates misses the point of nullification. By going this route, the States are still trying to use an arm of the federal government to undue a usurpation of power by the federal government, which gives credence to the erroneous assumption that the federal government can legitimately serve as the arbiter (or even worse the exclusive arbiter) of the extent of the powers of ITSELF as defined by the Constitution in relation to the States. Nowhere in the Constitution was the federal government (including the Supreme Court) empowered to serve as the judge (much less the exclusive judge) of the constitutionality of federal actions... which means by its omission that the power to judge over the constitutionality of federal actions is “reserved to the States or to the people” per the 10th Amendment.
The better route, as suggested by no less statesmen than Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, is for the States to bypass the courts entirely and just unilaterally declare the federal mandates null and void either through legislation or amendments to their State constitutions. This is how many of the States have already engaged in nullification with their health care freedom/firearms freedom bills and referendums that we’ve seen over the last two years.
Kudos to these two States for standing up for their sovereignty. As it’s very unlikely that the federal government will ever willingly give back to the States the powers that it has illegally stolen over the last two centuries, simple State nullification may indeed be our best long-term strategy to systematically dismantle the 75% of the federal government that exists unconstitutionally.