Posted on 02/10/2016 8:59:21 AM PST by SandRat
PHOENIX — State lawmakers are moving to protect Arizona citizens from being hauled off in the middle of the night by the Department of Homeland Security.
The measure approved Tuesday by the Senate Committee on Federalism, Mandates and Fiscal Responsibility makes it illegal to "arrest or capture'' any citizen "with the intent of detention under the law of war.'' It also would bar executing anyone who has not first been convicted in a federal court.
Sen. Judy Burges, R-Sun City West, said SB 1437 is aimed at the heart of the National Defense Authorization Act. She said that law is so overly broad that it infringes on constitutional protections of citizens.
(Excerpt) Read more at svherald.com ...
Hey sandrat, anyway to post the whole article since I don’t want to sign up to their site to see it?
NOPE. Not since the paper changrd their web site.
Well, the first shot over the bow that I know of, of a state rejecting and nullifying, or at least preemptively blocking, an unconstitutional federal act.
May there be much more of this everywhere.
I wasn’t able to see the whole article so I don’t know if they did this but they should include a publicly accessible rationale as to why AZ considers this federal act, either pursuant to a federal law or anticipated, to be unconstitutional.
State nullification of actual or anticipated unconstitutional federal acts should contain a rationale about why the state considers such to be unconstitutional, because it is the unconstitutionality that validates such state blockage of the feds.
Also, AZ and other sates venturing into the land of constitutional freedom from the feds should be prepared to become fiscally independent of the feds because sooner or later the feds will put economic sanctions on such a state or states.
Financial independence of states from the feds should be viewed as an absolutely healthy thing in many respects. Our country was founded on the idea of INDEPENDENCE from government tyranny as stated in our Declaration of Independence. Also, any state who observed and abides by the benefits of limited government, low taxes, and the free market economy will soon be more economically healthy than the bankrupt feds. If little, resource-poor Hong Kong, perched on a tiny rocky peninsula can become economically successful, so can any state.
You mean like the cities and states that have effectively nullified federal immigration law?
“Effectively” or officially by passing a law in direct defiance of federal law because of stated reasons why the federal law is unconstitutional? That is exactly what is needed against these and other unconstitutional federal acts.
I don’t disagree with your premise at all. I just object to the selective indignation and response of the federal government, whether it be DHS, DOJ or any other out-of-control federal entity. But that pretty much includes all of them, doesn’t it...
Every state should be doing this.
YES! See post #4.
Not nullification, but “up-yours” legislation. The Supremacy Clause prevents states from legislating in areas in which the federal government legislation already occupies, at least in direct contradiction to such fed legislation.
More states need to do this. When the feds show up, arrest them, unless previously authorized by some state official.
The central issue is the Constitution and how the feds regularly violate it and have huge departments unauthorized by the Constitution. If you dismantled the unconstitutional cabinet departments and the unconstitutional administrative state that spews out these obnoxious and dead-end regulations, and actually cut the feds down to its constitutional size, I think you will have cut at least 80% of the $4 trillion government and would send hundreds of thousands of government officials, bureaucratic heads and workers home packing. Short-term pain for them, long term recovery for America.
Probably the greatest political need in out country is the average citizen getting a hold of the Constitution and learning its presumptions, structure, text, as well as the perversions perpetrated by SCOTUS especially since the beginning of the 20th century. Americans need to OWN THEIR Constitution and THEIR freedom. It belongs to THEM, not the feds.
Easy-peasy. Just make sure to get a bunch of paper, so they can fill in the Bill #, the ‘anti’ line and churn out a bunch.
“___ is hereby null and void in the Republic of XYZ, having violated the constraints of A1S8 and 9th/10th Amendments of the Constitution and used to punish, harass and eat out their substance of the Citizens of this fine State.”
I suppose they could try it.
Personally I don’t recommend DHS bashing down my door.
From my reading of the Constitution the Federal Government has no police powers outside of a Federal district or on Federal property.
Federal warrants should have to be executed by state LEOs.
One could even make the case that Federal prosecutors should have to seek warrants in state courts.
I see nothing in the constitution that authorizes the operation of the FBI, the IRS or any other Federal enforcement agency within the borders of any of the states.
Can’t say that I disagree at all. The issues you point out only scratch the surface of the multitudes of extra-constitutional things the federal government is doing, from legislation by regulation, to the de facto enactment of treaties without Senate ratification and legislation by executive fiat.
All of the above is why I continue to maintain that only the election of a true constitutionalist (”constitutional conservative”, if you will) with the courage to fight the legislative and judicial battles that need to be fought can we begin to right the ship.
From my perspective, we need a president who is more than willing to exercise his veto power, to shut down the government and take the case directly to the people, i.e., a courageous “a-hole” who would be willing to do battle with the media and his opponents in both parties and engage in a full-scale, long-term constitutional war with “progressivism”. He would push for a balanced budget amendment, dissolution of the IRS, a flat/fair income tax, elimination of the corporate income tax, elimination of the death tax, term limits, etc. and one who will at least begin to push for the elimination/dissolution of extra-constitutional departments, activities and agencies within the federal government. He would recognize that the Supreme Court is NOT the “final word” on anything and that the Constitution provides for three CO-EQUAL branches of government, not a supremely powerful judiciary branch with universal veto authority. That president would appoint like-minded people to his cabinet and the federal bench. He would build alliances - even small ones - with like-minded members of the House and Senate who are equally willing to take the case directly to their constituents.
In essence, we’re debating treatment for a case of psoriasis while the patient is dying of metastatic cancer.
Addressing only the symptoms of the [constitutional disregard] disease will, in my opinion, provide only temporary relief from this inexorable slide toward a European-style socialist state or worse.
Is there such a person? I’m not entirely sure...
There’s only ONE Constitutional restriction upon an individual that I know of: the 13th Amendment forbidding keeping a slave. I know of no other constitutional reason for the feds to interfere with an individual, other than an individual’s direct interference with the fed’s constitutional duties.
Probably the greatest political need in our country is the average citizen getting a hold of the Constitution and learning it. This means learning its 1) presumptions, 2) structure, 3) text, and 4) perversions perpetrated by SCOTUS especially since the beginning of the 20th century. Americans need to OWN THEIR Constitution and THEIR freedom. It belongs to THEM, not the feds.
What you touch on is the “perversion” part of learning the Constitution. The big four perversions are
a) “The Incorporation Doctrine” - judicial misapplication of the 14th Amendment giving the feds sweeping powers not contemplated by the ratifiers of the amendment (your post alludes to this I think).
b) The [Interstate] “Commerce Clause” (Art I, Sec 8, Cl 3) astonishingly been expanded by Congress and ratified by SCOTUS to give the feds almost unlimited power over intrastate and local economic activities again, not contemplated by the ratifiers of the Constitution.
c) The “Necessary and Proper Clause” (Art I, Sec 8, Cl 18), originally intended to allow executive enforcement and regulation pursuant to legislation within the scope of the Constitution, the N&P Clause has been expanded beyond constitutional grounds and limits to such an extent that a quasi-fourth branch of government has been created: the Administrative State with behemoth unconstitutional bureaucracies.
d) The power and effect of SCOTUS decisions. Society and the legal community have granted SCOTUS much greater power than what the ratifiers of the Constitution contemplated. Nowhere does the Constitution give SCOTUS power to create national law. SCOTUS is the judicial, not legislative branch, given power to decide INDIVIDUAL CASES and CONTROVERSIES (Art III, Sec 2). Thus SCOTUS decisions, if soundly based on the Constitution, are valid but limited to precedent for like cases. A SCOTUS decision that is deemed unconstitutional should be ignored and nullified by the states and the other federal branches, but not without sound Constitution-based explanation and reasons for such nullification.
This is an action plan to begin the recovery of political freedom in America. The first step is the American People becoming familiar with and owning THEIR Constitution as written and originally understood and intended as outline above, which is the key to THEIR political freedom.
Excellent Post.
Well thought out and on point.
Said it better than I could.
Thanks Pontiac. Hopefully we can make something come of all this and get ourselves back to being a free country again by God’s grace.
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