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Finally, Texas found their balls….
Posted by Duncan on February 21st, 2009
Texas legislators introduced a state resolution declaring what should have been a moot point to begin with. After all, it is not like the 9th and 10th Amendments are anything NEW, despite claims of a “living and breathing Constitution“.
Oklahoma did this earlier as well as Raven’s New Hampshire.
I believe there are 20 or so other states with similar bills pending in their state legislatures. Here is a map showing the states so far:
I was surprised by California’s addition to this list. So I went to the links provided by Mr. Step above, and it looks like the bill he is referring to was introduced back in 1994! And apparently it passed the legislature and was filed with the Secretary of State. Too bad California is crawling to the Feds to beg for some money instead of sucking it up and living within their means..
Looks like the Federal Government’s power grabs starting with FDR and his New Deal are starting to come to a head.
A copy of the bill introduced follows:
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States reads as follows: “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”;
and
WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of
federal power as being that specifically granted by the
Constitution of the United States and no more; and
WHEREAS, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment
means that the federal government was created by the states
specifically to be an agent of the states; and
WHEREAS, Today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated
as agents of the federal government; and
WHEREAS, Many federal laws are directly in violation of the
Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and
WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of
the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union
of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal
government may not usurp; and
WHEREAS, Section 4, Article IV, of the Constitution says,
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a
Republican Form of Government,” and the Ninth Amendment states that
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not
be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”;
and
WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New
York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that congress may not
simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the
states; and
WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous administrations
and some now pending from the present administration and from
congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States;
now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby claim 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; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That this 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 that
directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal
penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation
or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed; and, be it
further
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.
February 21st, 2009 at 12:00 pm
WOOO-HOOOO!!! Now Virginia has got to get online with this, too…
BRING BACK THE TENTH AMENDMENT!!!!
Good find, Duncan – may God grant that each and every state join in this “revolt” and reclaim their natural, Constitutional sovereignty.
February 21st, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Glad to see Oklahoma on there! the feds are overreaching big time – don’t know if these will help or not but I sure hope so!
February 22nd, 2009 at 2:37 am
These are steps in the right direction so long as they don’t just get stuffed into the same dusty drawer that most resolutions end up once passed. In particular, if these states want to go beyond posturing, the first thing they need to do is to take back control of their militia and insist that they cannot be Federalized without prior state approval.
Otherwise the efforts of any of these states to actually try to enforce these provisions will be as effective as shooting spitballs at the Wehrmacht.
As for California, I can explanation I can think of is that the resolution must have slipped onto the consent calendar on a slow day.
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:58 am
***sigh***
NH Update:
http://snipurl.com/cf571
If I can, I will be attending the rally on March 4th.
February 22nd, 2009 at 9:49 am
The socialists of Oregon are so certain of the sanctity and omniscience of the federal guvmint they don’t even pretend on this regard, the only state west of Utah that blatantly bootlicking to the D.C. gurus who got us to here to begin with.
BTW, are other states being overrun with ads telling us 11 million kids are without insurance now and the world will end if we don’t have universal health coverage NOW? EMERGENCY! CATASTROPHE! HORRORS! MONSTERS!