Pitchfork time

States constitutional rights usurped by the feds

New State Sovereignty movement mobilizing By Henry Lamb Sunday, March 8, 2009

The Tenth Amendment is not all that hard to understand:
“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.”
Since even Harvard graduates can easily understand this simple language, the fact that it is so blatantly ignored must mean that the President, and the majority of Congress, rejects this portion of the Constitution they swore to defend.
Nowhere among the enumerated powers is there authority for the federal government to be in the mortgage loan business – as in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Nowhere is there authority for the federal government to be in the banking, or insurance business – as in Citibank, and AIG. Nowhere is there authority for the federal government to be in the health care business, or the animal identification business, or in the energy business, or in most of the places where the federal government is now flexing its regulatory muscles.
Ron Paul and a few others in Washington have raised their voices in opposition to this trend. Now, there are new rumblings across the land that gives new hope to those who still believe that the U.S. Constitution must not be ignored.
Oklahoma Representative Charles Key introduced a resolution in the state legislature last year calling on the federal government to “cease and desist” issuing federal mandates beyond the scope of the enumerated powers of the Constitution. The House passed the resolution, but it died in the Senate. This year, State Senator Randy Brogdon joined the effort and the resolution passed in the Oklahoma Senate 25 - 17. The resolution is quite clear:
“…the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.”
This should be clear enough, even for Harvard graduates, especially those who claim to be Constitutional scholars.
Fifteen other states have similar resolutions under consideration. It may be safe to conclude that the several states have had enough of their constitutional rights usurped by the feds. It’s about time. Of course, it will take a lot of backbone for the states to make these resolutions meaningful. The feds hold the purse-strings which puts the states at a disadvantage. The feds can simply refuse to send money to the states that refuse to cooperate with their unconstitutional mandates.
The Democrat bail-out bill, for example, mandates that states remove the time limit on welfare checks as a condition of receiving a portion of the bail-out monies. It will be hard for politicians to refuse the funds, unless they know that their constituents want them to refuse the funds. The states that do accept these conditions, and the funds, will have to find new funds to continue the limitless welfare payments when the fed funds run dry.
Voters have to get involved. Voters should let their state representatives know that they appreciate efforts to rein in unconstitutional federal power. And they need to let their congressional delegation know that they expect their Washington representatives to support their state. Activists in every state should require every candidate for Congress in 2010 to sign a pledge to support the state’s 10th Amendment resolution. It’s high time that Congress and the President realize that the voters want the Constitution to be honored.
Freedom21 organizations are supporting this 10th Amendment, “State Sovereignty” movement. Local meetings are being held in several states to raise public awareness of this 10th Amendment initiative. Washington must realize that voters are serious about this issue.
Both Congress and the President act as if the federal government were king and the states nothing more than feudal allocations that operate at the pleasure of the king. They have forgotten that the states existed long before there was a federal government. The federal government was created by the states to serve the states – not the other way around.
Both Congress and the President would do well to remember another king, another government that made feudal allocations to operate at the pleasure of the king. They should also remember that when the king’s pleasure became too onerous to bear, the subjects found a way to create a new government.
Flash to Washington: American subjects have not forgotten who created the federal government. Americans are now experienced in getting rid of an onerous government and creating another. Listen well, Washington, to these 10th Amendment rumblings and amend your ways. Remember, Americans can now create a new government without firing a shot. America has had about all of the king’s pleasure it intends to tolerate.