Posted on 02/08/2014 4:37:09 AM PST by Jacquerie
Does a state have the right to nullify federal statutes the state considers unconstitutional? This depends largely on how you define “nullification.” It also depends on what you mean by “right” and what kind of document you understand the Constitution to be. IOW, it depends on your premises.
Unfortunately, people often discuss/debate, and attack each other over—the merits or demerits of nullification without making their premises clear. The result is quarreling among people who are fundamentally on the same side.
The Constitution has been characterized as:
* A compact (i.e., contract) to which only the states are parties, by which the states granted power to federal officials. This is the pure interstate compact theory, expressed in Jefferson’s 1798 Kentucky Resolutions.
* A “compound” compact, created by the people but to which the states are parties. This was apparently Madison’s post-ratification view (see, for example, the equivocal wording about the nature of the Constitution in his Notes on Nullification), and may have underlain his 1798 Virginia Resolution.
* A popular grant: that is, a grant of power from the people—mostly to federal legislators and officials, but in some cases to state legislative authorities (as in the Time, Places, and Manner Clause) or to state legislators (as in Article V). This view was expressed by some of the seven state legislatures that formally repudiated the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. It also was Chief Justice John Marshall’s conclusion in the famous case of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819).
You can make the best case for narrow-definition nullification as a constitutional prerogative if you adopt the first of the three alternatives. The basic idea is that if other states have broken the compact by letting their agent (the federal government) run amok, then aggrieved states (compacting parties) have the right to protect themselves.
(Excerpt) Read more at constitution.i2i.org ...
-PJ
Ooops. I'll blame it on Sochi.
-PJ
Post #26.
Didn’t Texas try to make it illegal for TSA to do their malevolent work at any Texas airport?
Can states refuse to pay some federal taxes?
I believe you are right. In America Police State 2014, we are all (except for muzzies) assumed to be resisters to the regime. The screws tighten every day, and most people don’t care.
bkmrk.
I hear a lot of folks say that “nullification” means just ignoring the feds. I guess Eisenhower squashed that idea in the 50’s and 60’s.
Thanks for the ping/link to the debate about the constitution. A very interesting debate about nullification. Thanks to all posters.
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