Nullification: The Duty and Right of the States-Pt. 1

     

 

by KrisAnne Hall http://www.KrisAnneHall.com After perceiving a long train of usurpations of power by the federal government, which culminated in legislation known as Obamacare many Americans took to the streets in protest.  They appealed to the Legislature to no avail. The legislation ultimately made its way to the Supreme Court.  We then witnessed a colossal rewriting of our founding documents in the majority opinion to the Obamacare mandate.  Justice John Roberts in a few lines pulled down the pillars of the Republic and set us on the path to totalitarianism. Nearly half of the population rightfully regards this legislation as extending far beyond the enumerated powers of the federal government.  The truth is, not only should the Sates be able to deal with their own health insurance issues, but the federal government has no legitimate authority to rule by such dictates.  Yet, many who vowed to fight it “to the end” have now acquiesced and declared that it must be submitted to as “the law of the land.”  So is this the end?  Since SCOTUS made its declaration from on high, must we now bow to an all-powerful government, from which no area of our daily life is off-limits?  Or is there a remedy yet remaining?  Can the States legitimately resist federal law or is this "treasonous" as some have suggested? To answer these questions we must first understand the nature of the Republic we call the United States.  These States are “United” in a compact, the Constitution.  This compact, or contract, made among the States not only the created the federal government but also dictated the limited and specific powers delegated to the federal government by the parties of this contract.   Secondly, since the States are the parties to the compact and the creators of the central government, then the States, naturally, are the masters of their creation.  That is to say, they are sovereign - independent of, separate from and sovereign over the federal government.  All of the powers not delegated to the federal government remain with the States and the people.  The 10th Amendment makes that very clear. "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." 10th Amendment to the US Constitution It is upon this foundation that the States have the ultimate right to stand against ANY unconstitutional law created or enforced by the federal government.  The 10th Amendment declares that the federal government is to only operate within their delegated powers.  James Madison explains those delegated powers in Federalist Paper #45: “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce…”  Federalist Paper #45 Madison then goes on to explain “the powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.”  Federalist Paper #45 Therefore, the 10th Amendment in conjunction with Madison’s explanation makes it clear that the States’ powers are numerous, the federal powers are few, and the federal government has no business interjecting itself into the powers reserved to the States. To claim the 10th amendment says anything else would make the Constitution a complete absurdity.  Since there are no areas of power that are simply floating out in the neutral zone waiting for someone to use them, if the federal government uses a power that was not Constitutionally delegated, it must steal it from the States.  When the federal government does this, it removes power from the States, rights from the people, and makes the Constitution completely meaningless.  Such overreach sets the precedent that no power is reserved to the States and that all power is open for federal taking.  This effectively nullifies the 9th and 10th Amendments, and destroys the Constitutional barriers established to contain a limited and defined federal government.  What will then be the federal government’s limitations? Nothing but its own will.  “That they will view this as seizing the rights of the States, and consolidating them in the hands of the general government, with a power assumed to bind the States, not merely in cases made federal, but in all cases whatsoever…that this would be to surrender the form of government we have chosen, and live under one deriving its powers from its own will, and not from our authority…” Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 This is, in essence, what Justice Roberts declared in his opinion on Obamacare, overturning the very purpose of the Constitution itself – to enumerate the powers of a limited central government and bind it under the authority of the States.  What happens when the barriers of the Constitution are completely swept away?  The federal government will now have the ability to exercise any power over the States whatsoever.  The people will be rendered completely powerless and irrelevant.  What will be the purpose of elections then?  We will no longer be a republic, but a government ruled as a Kingdom. “…for the federal government toenlarge its powers by forced construction of the constitutional charter which defines them…so as to destroy the meaning and effect of the particular enumeration which necessarily explains and limits the general phrases…the obvious tendency and inevitable result…would be, to transform the present republican system of the United States into an absolute, or, at best, a mixed monarchy.”  James Madison, Virginia Resolutions 1798 So, when the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of the federal government have collectively torn through the boundaries set by the Constitution, and the people have no recourse in the federal system, what is the remedy?  What is the proper course when the federal government has gone rogue?  The drafter of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson and The Father of the Constitution, James Madison speak very clearly on the position of the States as the sovereign defenders of the foundations of our Republic.  It is the founders of the Republic who must give us our remedy…  Nullification, the Duty and Right of the States-Pt. 2         by KrisAnne Hall http://www.KrisAnneHall.com   James Madison gives us this answer regarding the remedy to the states for combating federal overreach. In fact, according to our founders, it was not only the remedy but the DUTY of the states to stand in defense of the Republic. “…in the case of deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not granted…the states…have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose, …for maintaining, within their respective limits, the authorities, rights, and liberties…” Virginia Resolutions of 1798 James Madison What is this interposition? It is what Jefferson referred to as NULLIFICATION of the unauthorized acts of the federal government.  It is the States declaring, “The federal government is NOT our master, the States and the people are the masters of the Constitution and we do not have to, nor will we comply!”  “Whenever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void and of no force.” Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 Nullification is legitimate act of refusing to implement unconstitutional federal directives. “That the several states who formed [the Constitution], being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction; and, That a nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under the color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy.”  Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolutions 1799 To deny the States this right is tyrannical and is an unconstitutional doctrine. In fact our founders believed that if the States did not refuse to submit to unconstitutional use of federal power, the result would be the elimination of state powers, elimination of the rights of the people, and the complete dissolution of the Union and our Constitution.  “the doctrine which denies to the States the right of protecting their reserved powers, and which would vest in the General Government (it matters not through which department) the right of determining, exclusively and finally, the powers delegated to it, is incompatible with the sovereignty of the States, and of the Constitution itself, considered as the basis of the Federal Union.”  Fort Hill Address, John C. Calhoun July 26, 1831 If the federal government uses a power that it was not delegated, it does so unconstitutionally. The federal government exists solely because of the Constitution.  Therefore any act that is unconstitutional destroys the very legitimacy of the federal government’s actions and therefore has no effect whatsoever.  Since it has no effect, the States are merely declaring that fact, and are therefore not required to submit. An epidemic of Constitutional ignorance has made it popular in our day to declare “this is the law of the land because the Supreme Court says so,” and since SCOTUS has said “nullification is not valid,” then it is not a proper remedy, some even claim that it is treasonous.  The men who founded the nation found the assertion offensive that the Supreme Court had the ultimate authority to dictate to the States the acts of the federal government. “The idea that the general government is the exclusive judge of the extent of the powers delegated to it, stop nothing short of despotism- since the discretion of those who administer the government, and not the Constitution would be the measure of their powers.” Thomas Jefferson, Kentucky Resolution 1799  To assume that the Supreme Court has the final word on what will or will not be implemented throughout the land is to abandon all power of the states, and throw them into complete submission to a federal power. It would be like allowing a criminal to determine his own guilt or innocence.    “If the decision of the judiciary be raised above the authority of the sovereign parties to the Constitution… dangerous powers, not delegated, may not only be usurped and executed by the other departments, but that the judicial department, also, may exercise or sanction dangerous powers beyond the grant of the Constitution… consequently, that the ultimate right of the parties to the Constitution, to judge whether the compact has been dangerously violated, must extend to violations by one delegated authority as well as by another--by the judiciary as well as by the executive, or the legislature.” James Madison,Virginia Assembly Report of 1800 Even Federalist, Alexander Hamilton made clear that the Constitution is binding upon any branch of the federal government.  To suggest that the creature could overrule its creator was to our founders a complete absurdity.  "No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.  To deny this, would be to affirm, that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves; that men acting by virtue of powers, may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid." Alexander Hamilton Federalist Paper #78 It is incumbent upon the STATE REPRESENTATIVES to carry out their oath of office, “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” and be the guardians of the liberty of its citizens.  The Governors and Legislatures must draft a Resolution proclaiming the sovereignty of the state and the unconstitutionality of the federal power and asserting the state’s duty to deny said power.  That Resolution must then be transmitted by the Governor to the Senators and Representatives representing the state in Congress.  Unwilling to shrink from our representative responsibilities… It would be [deceitful] in those entrusted with the GUARDIANSHIP OF THE STATE SOVEREIGNTY, and acting under the solemn obligation of the following oath, — “I do swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States,” — not to warn you of encroachments, which, though clothed with the pretext of necessity, or disguised by arguments of expediency, may yet establish precedents which may ultimately devote a generous and unsuspicious people to all the consequences of usurped power.  Address of the General Assembly to the People of the Commonwealth of Virginia January 23, 1799 When petition fails…when Congress refuses to enforce Separation of Powers and protect the sovereignty of the States…when the Supreme Court joins in the unconstitutional use of power, we cannot admit that revolution is the only solution that remains! Revolution does not save the Constitution, it can only destroy it.  There must be another peaceful resolution; and there is: It is called Nullification. For the federal government or the States to deny this method of constitutional remedy is to say they are resolved to the destruction of the Constitution and the potential of driving its people to revolution. “…our Constitution is most worthless and tyrannical, if the usurpations of those who administer it, cannot be resisted by any means short of revolution. I have always considered the reserved powers of the States, as the only real check upon the powers of the federal government; and I have always considered it, not only the right, but the imperious duty of the States, so to apply that check, as not to dissolve the Union. And I have never been able to discover any mode of doing this, except by the positive refusal of the States to submit to usurpations…” Judge Able P. Upshur, An Exposition of the Virginia Resolutions of 1798 (No. I) The acquiescence of the states, under infractions of the federal compact, would either beget a speedy consolidation, by precipitating the state governments into impotency and contempt, or prepare the way for a revolution, by a repetition of these infractions until the people are aroused to appear in the majesty of their strength.  Address of the General Assembly to the People of the Commonwealth of Virginia, January 23, 1799 Therefore, in upholding their oath the States must stand against any legislation that serves to steal power from the state, thus destroying the Constitution.  If the States fail to stand against this tyrannical use of power by the federal government, they will consent to their own destruction, or worse, to revolution. “Let history be consulted; let the man of experience reflect; nay, let the artificers of monarchy be asked what further materials they can need for building up their favorite system.”  Address of the General Assembly to the People of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1799

Dictator Obama and Reaching the Point of No Return

from The Betrayal by David-Crockett

October 19th, 2009
Canada Free Press
By Sher Zieve

As very few of our Congressional elected officials—Democrats AND Republicans—are taking any actions or exhibiting any desire to stop the Obama Dictatorship and We-the-People are now being completely left out of any and all legislation that directly affects us, I can only surmise that we as the Nation of the United states of America may have reached the point of no return in our rapidly forced descent into totalitarianism.

From the anti-American and anti-human recently-passed Congressional bills, I have also concluded that—as these self-same elected officials no longer care what their constituents think—our attempts to stop the insanity of government officials summarily stripping us of our own money and our Constitutionally guaranteed liberties via peaceful means may have now come to an end. They haven’t worked. In actuality, even our September 1.7 millions-person-march on Washington D.C. in opposition to ObamaCare and Cap and Tax barely elicited yawns from both the Executive and Legislative branches of government—the ones the American people elected to office in the first place. Instead, delivering yet another slap to the faces of the American people, Obama skipped town that day to be fawned over by a hand-picked crowd of his supporters in Minnesota.

How did this dismantling occur? The beginnings of the Progressive/Communist/Marxist movement began in the US—in earnest—under Democrat President Woodrow Wilson and was expanded in the 1920s by ACLU founder Roger Nash Baldwin. There are many books and articles written about Baldwin—I’ve written a few also—so if you wish to research his or Wilson’s progressive and pro-communist backgrounds, I encourage you to do so. In this column, however, I will concentrate on more recent events leading to our demise.

The Beginnings of Recent Leftist Democrat Destructions

Established in 1977 under then leftist President Jimmy Carter, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was enacted to force banking institutions to provide loans to low income people—many of whom could not or simply did not pay the loans back. As well as being used as a liberal/leftist slush fund, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were utilized to finance the mortgages of low-income individuals who could not qualify to purchase a home under traditional 30-year fixed financing. So, ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) were given to the unqualified buyer. Beginning with extremely low mortgage payments, the unqualified-under-any-sane-circumstances buyer “bought” his or her home. The problem—just as if it had been planned—came when the mortgage rates increased, balloon payments came due and the ARM buyers paycheck didn’t increase at the same rate as his mortgage payments did. The marginal buyers were in trouble and, then, so was the economy.

The Leftists’ intermediary move to better Ensure the Deal?

To top that off, on 15 September 2008—under two months prior to the US Presidential and General elections—a coordinated and as yet “culprits-unnamed” draw-down on money market accounts to the tune of $550Billions in under 2 hours (a run on the banks) was announced by the Federal Reserve. It quickly pumped $120Billions into the system, temporarily shut down the Reserve and announced if it had not done so, by 3:00 p.m. that same day $5.5Trillions would have been lost by the USA alone and the world economic system would have crashed and burned.

Hmmm. Was this run on the banks and potential destruction of the economic system a way to better ensure Obama would be installed as POTUS? I don’t know but, it was certainly highly “coincidental” wasn’t it? This bank-run caused President Bush—under the prodding of the Democrat-run Congress—to call for TARP or “Troubled Asset Relief Program“ to be instituted. Note: It appears that the economy was doing too well for the Left to take any more chances that their Marxist candidate wouldn’t win. So…the run on the banks was necessary. What a movie this will make. But, who will play Obama? Will Obama soon control the film industry—at least the small portion he doesn’t currently dominate?

Change You Can Believe in but, Are Not Allowed to Know

The US POTUS Candidate (who may or may not be a US citizen—“Don’t ask don’t tell” is Obama’s motto on his birth certificate issue) Barack Hussein Obama was chosen by US and World leftists as their representative to employ and conduct the fast, furious and final disintegration and desolation of the United States of America. And, Obama is conducting a brilliant campaign of doing so. In just a few short months Obama has brought the USA to its knees and terrorists everywhere to wild and unbridled applause. In just 9 months, Obama and his minions (including his Uber-Marxist Czars) has stolen more money (and continues to do so) from We-the-People than all other POTUS’ in history—combined. And he is redistributing it to his cronies and countries of choice—with a few bucks trickled down to the voting poor. Obama has vowed to shove his Cap and Tax and government-run ObamaCare down the throats of the American people. This is despite the facts that consistently the American people have polled in large majority against Cap and Trade (which will cause an energy-cost increase of between $2,000-4,000/year per family and eliminate millions more jobs), 80-85% of the American people polled have said they like their current healthcare insurance plans and do NOT want government-controlled healthcare (aka “public option”). Change has come folks. But, it no longer seems to be the change that those who voted for Obama thought it would include. And all of their “change” is now happening behind closed Democrat doors. We-the-People are neither invited to participate in our country’s business nor to make any more decisions regarding it. Our rulers have spoken—loudly.

The Real Mission of the World’s Left

In virtually everything they say and do, Obama, the US House of Representatives and the US Senate have made it crystal clear that they do not care what We-the-People want. They are now talking only amongst themselves and taking only their own counsel. They want control OVER us—purely and simply. And they’re gaining more and more of it each and every day. Cap and Trade (now called the “Climate Bill”) will not help the climate. But, it will take more of the people’s assets and give them to the UN. Did you know that Obama is planning to cede what’s remaining of US sovereignty in December at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen? See the video and article below. If they don’t send chills down your spine nothing will. The signing this treaty will place the United Nations in charge of US energy policy. Did you know that? And leftist Democrats are now openly running as Republicans. One prime example is that of New York’s 23rd District Dierdre Scozzafava. Scozzafava is pro-abortion, pro-big labor, votes to raise taxes and is supported by leftist groups including the Working Families Party, which calls itself “New York’s liveliest and most progressive political party.” The real conservative running in this race is Doug Hoffman. To add insult to injury, Newt Gingrich is supporting the radical Scozzafava. Note: More suspicions confirmed about Newt?

Endgame

The poorer and less educated countries become, the easier it is to control both said countries and their populations. And, with regards to ObamaCare, the fewer people in a country—the easier it is to control. Marxism is a feudal system, which incorporates the elite ruling class at the top and the soon-to-be-poor workers (aka proletariat) at the bottom working for the elites. The proletariat have nothing except that which their totalitarian government decides to “bestow” upon them. And the bestowing is not, by any stretch of the imagination, equal.

And from the 1963 Communist Goals for the USA (it took awhile but, Obama is now driving them through) are a few of the tactics used. The complete list can be accessed via the URL below:

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture—education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.
Sound familiar? It should. It’s what the leftist Congress and Dictator-in-Chief have been using as one of their guidelines since they were elected. And the endgame? It’s to control who can be controlled and terminate those who refuse.

Simple process and to the point…don’t you think?