10 States Begin the Movement to Restore the Constitution –
States Rights. State Sovereignty. State Power. No matter what term you want to use to describe it, several states, and Freedom Movement citizens in those states, are making an effort to restore the Constitution – the 10th Amendment specifically. Ten states have “Tenth Amendment” resolutions in committee or on the docket, and counting. Twenty-one states have similar resolutions in the works or similar legislation based on Constitutional delegation of powers being proposed. The Tenth Amendment states:
“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.”
There are many areas in which our federal government has overstepped its bounds, we all know this. Just a few of these areas are education, health care, federal police, environmental “permissions”, federal drug penalties, meat and produce regulation, and on and on…. The resolutions proposed vary in intent, but they all have one thing in common: To remind the federal government and the executive and legislative branches in Washington DC that the Tenth Amendment still exists, that the Constitution is still the law of the land, and that the people are aware of federal intervention into local governments. Some of these resolutions declare the next step, that if their sovereignty in these areas is not recognized, that decisions and laws made at the federal level are now void and there is no legal justification to follow the federal regulations. For instance, the resolution in New Hampshire in reference to both the Tenth Amendment and Section 8 of the Constitution delegating the powers of Congress, reads:
“That the Constitution of the United States, having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies, and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations, slavery, and no other crimes whatsoever; and it being true as a general principle, and one of the amendments to the Constitution having also declared, 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,” therefore all acts of Congress which assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those so enumerated in the Constitution are altogether void, and of no force; and that the power to create, define, and punish such other crimes is reserved, and, of right, appertains solely and exclusively to the respective States, each within its own territory;…”
The Missouri House Resolution13 reads:
“Be it further resolved that this concurrent resolution 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; and
Be it further resolved that all compulsory federal legislation which directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed; and”
These are powerful, and justified, statements of members of the Constitutional Republic. If you think of the many, and the mundane, federal laws forced on the people outside of those delegated to Congress by, supposedly, the law of the land then you have a very long list of void legislation. You will also find a long list of bureaucracies and institutions that could be wiped away from our state and the costs that go with them. Principally, we the several states agreed to form a union and created a servant federal government with very few delegated duties. If that agreement, the Constitution, is void then we have a lot of work to do to “reconstitute” a union. As sovereign individuals, living in sovereign state members of a union, we must find ways to maintain our property and our rights. John Locke, a philosopher who created the basis for what would become the American Enlightenment codified by Thomas Paine, famously wrote about security of property:
“The reason why men enter into society, is the preservation of their property; and the end why they chuse and authorize a legislative, is, that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the properties of all the members of the society, to limit the power, and moderate the dominion, of every part and member of the society: for since it can never be supposed to be the will of the society, that the legislative should have a power to destroy that which every one designs to secure, by entering into society, and for which the people submitted themselves to legislators of their own making; whenever the legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience”
Would “reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power” be relative to the IRS and the last three “stimulus” bills?
New Hampshire is the first of many states to begin the process of regaining their lost National Guard Troops from our interventions overseas. New Hampshire representatives are putting forward a House Bill to establish a Permanent State Defense Force, justified in part that, “The general court finds that a large portion of the New Hampshire national guard has been and is on active duty outside the boundaries of the state and, therefore, finds it prudent to heed the recommendation from the Department of Homeland Security to establish a permanent state defense force by revising the militia statutes relative to the state guard.” The bill establishes that “The governor is hereby authorized and required to organize and maintain within this state, under such regulations as the Department of Defense of the United States may prescribe for discipline in training, and otherwise in general conformity with existing law, regulations, rules, and practices pertaining to the national guard, military forces to defend this state from invasion, rebellion, disaster, insurrection, riot, breach of the peace or imminent danger thereof, or to maintain the organized militia.”
These resolutions and bills are a good start, but we must be realistic on their chances. In a recent You Tube (Jefferson Blow off Part 1 & 2) there is a discussion in committee in New Hampshire about the Tenth Amendment bill. No member of the committee speaks against it, yet it is still voted down. These efforts may seem to be pushing a rock uphill, yet we should not be deterred. On February 10th, some members of the Liberty Restoration Project went to Jefferson City, Missouri with Campaign For Liberty members and others to speak for the Tenth Amendment Resolution as well as a bill against the REAL ID Act. After the committee hearing, they visited the floor of the State House and heard language those of us in the Freedom Movement often use: “sovereignty, federal intervention, states rights”. Is it possible some are listening?
This may only be the beginning, but it HAS BEGUN. What is needed now is for the citizens to support these brave representatives. And they are brave, facing ridicule, loss of campaign funds, and if the movement grows, increased media opposition. If your state has resolutions in committee, or about to be proposed, please call your representatives. If you can, make it to the capitol and testify. To prepare you can access many sources, including the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers, and reading “Common Sense” again can give you some great quotes. We can, and we must, convince our fellow citizens that it is imperative to Restore the Republic.
