Posted on 05/02/2013 10:35:34 AM PDT by ColdOne
A new law in Kansas that criminalizes the enforcement of federal gun controls in the state is unconstitutional, Attorney General Eric H. Holder said.
“In purporting to override federal law and to criminalize the official acts of federal officers, [the law] directly conflicts with federal law and is therefore unconstitutional,” Mr. Holder wrote to Gov. Sam Brownback in a letter dated April 26. “Federal officers who are responsible for enforcing federal laws and regulations in order to maintain public safety cannot be forced to choose between the risk of a criminal prosecution by a state and the continued performance of their federal duties.”
Mr. Holder cites the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says federal law trumps conflicting state authority or exercise of power. Kansas’s law became effective April 25.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
You trust those bozos after their Obamacare ruling? And dear leader will probably be choosing some new ones soon, putting them even more on his side.
State or local officials have no lawful authority to arrest federal agents from officially and faithfully enforcing federal law even using state law as a reason. A state law enforcement official or local law enforcement official that would try to impede, interfere or try to intimidate a federal official from performing their duties would be subject to immediate arrest by the feds and be brought before a Federal magistrate. The feds would not let their agents stay in a local jail but would use federal authority to order them released.
Also, it is actually Holder’s job to remind state officials that certain of their laws conflict with federal laws. US attorneys all over the country write these letters to state officials as part of their jobs from time to time. If the state of Kansas wishes to challenge this ruling they can file suit in the US District Court in Kansas.
US Attorneys enforce federal law and part of their jobs is official memorandums to state officials that state laws are conflicting to federal law. This is not a conservative vs liberal argument but Holder doing his job.
Lastly, I am a Reagan conservative but we as conservatives need to understand how the law works.
Lawful does not automatically equal rational or moral.
Oh, most certainly not. But we are a nation of laws, and you have to dance the last step before you start shooting the bastards.
Thank you for posting lunchbox.
Regarding your statement above, just in case you missed the excerpt below which has been posted in related threads, please consider the following.
"Congress is not empowered to tax for those purposes which are within the exclusive province of the States." --Justice John Marshall, Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
Military issues aside, given that one of the only federal government services that the Founding States authorized Congress to sell within a state's borders is postal services as evidenced by Clause 7 of Section 8 of Article I of the Constitution, most other federal government services that we pay taxes for are based on constitutionally nonexistant federal government powers.
Sadly, the reason that the feds have been getting away with laying illegal federal taxes for the last 60+ years is the following imo. "Fat, dumb and happy" patriots have not been making sure that their children are being taught the Constitution as the Founding States had intended for it to be understood, particulary the enumerated division of federal and state power evidenced by Section 8 of Article I, Article V and the 10th Amendment.
WTH does Holder know about what is and is not Constitutional. Fricking Hypocrite.
Kansas Governor should do what Obama does with his critics - ignore them.
Thanks. So do you think any part of those ideas are possible/achieveable?
In the future, it’s going to be tough to be a good rank-and-file “liberal” or “progressive”....there will just be so much innuendo flying.
None the less...when my leftist neighbor finds himself totally screwed on the Obamacare waiting list or in the criminal justice system...I will nod sympathetically over the fence. That’s all I’ll owe.
Mea culpa. Although I am very much interested in the discussion on this thread, I think that my previous post was intended for another thread. Sorry for confusion.
FUEH
Any response from the Governor?
Bwahahaha!!!!! yes he does! One of those iron skillet kind.
Its the federal laws that are unconstitutional.
Kansas has the power to uphold the US constitution.
I think Utah and Arizona have made it legal to use gold for pmts. As long as you could figure out how to get paid that way...There was a story awhile back of someone paying employees in silver dollars; helped out with payroll taxes counting $1.00 instead of the real worth of the silver. Except the Feds caught up with him.
That may be how the law works but if a law is unjust or constitutional then just acceptance of it, even if it has been approved by the court, isn’t right. That’s hoe I feel about Obamacare, and I don’t plan on filling out that form for the IRS. If they want to imprison or impoverish me, so be it.
what that FPOS knows about the Constitution could be printed on the tip of a needle...
Holder can read?
There is a big twist to this.
The SCOTUS has in past recognized that state courts are inferior to federal courts; and that state legislatures are inferior to congress; however, they have *never* found that the POTUS is superior to state governors.
This means that the only way the president can enforce his will over that of state governors is by force of arms.
The last time this was done was when Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne into Little Rock to force integration, despite the presence of the Arkansas National Guard, under the orders of governor Orval Faubus.
The trick, in this case, would be to arrange a similar situation, figuring that the current administration is too spineless to send in the Army to enforce an unconstitutional law.
Granted, all else being equal, the feds would eventually win. But the purpose of the exercise would be to so thoroughly embarrass them, and rally so much opposition to them, that they would lose the game.
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