Big government is no friend of the average, hard-working, liberty-loving American … or the soft-headed, big-government-loving emotional adolescent for that matter. To the government elites consolidating power in America’s impending police state, they are one and the same.
Breathe deep and you can almost smell the fear. That’s because this is not our America. Ironically, the beast now coiling its tentacles around our throats is of our making.
We became a nation of gullible, trusting dolts when we forgot George Washington’s warning that “government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
Therefore: The time has come make our case for State Sovereignty...
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for a People to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with their current form of government, and to resume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience have shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Sovereign States and the citizens thereof; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their current Systems of Government. The history of Barack Hussein Obama, the President of the United States, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:
President Barack Hussein Obama has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good, when he authorized the murders of Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Kahn, American citizens, and separately, al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son Abdulrahman, none of whom were ever charged with a crime in a court of law; thereby nullifying the 5th Amendment which states that "NO PERSON shall be deprived of Life, Liberty, or Property… without Due Process of Law."
President Barack Hussein Obama has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them, by refusing to identify and deport illegal aliens, and then denying the Sovereign State of Arizona the right to defend its own borders.
In collusion with Treasonous Members of Congress, President Barack Hussein Obama has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
President Barack Hussein Obama has attacked elected representatives repeatedly,for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
President Barack Hussein Obama has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
President Barack Hussein Obama is trying to make the Supreme Court Of The United States dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and their relevance.
President Barack Hussein Obama has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
President Barack Hussein Obama is forming among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies of Private Mercenaries without the Consent of our legislatures.
President Barack Hussein Obama has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing or ignoring the free System of American Laws, establishing therein an Arbitrary government by Executive Order, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example, and fit instrument for, introducing the same absolute rule into these Individual Sovereign States:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments, and ceding authority to offices funded by, and accountable to, the Federal Reserve.
For bypassing our own Legislatures, and declaring himself invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever, including our very right to Life, President Barack Hussein Obama has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against Us.
President Barack Hussein Obama has plundered our economy, ravaged our industry, and destroyed the lives of our people. During his first term in office he has carelessly spent as much money as every President that preceded him combined. With a National Debt topping 16 Trillion dollars Our Great Republic is teetering at the precipice of financial collapse due to his wanton disregard for the solvency of the Nation.
President Barack Hussein Obama is at this time forming large Armies of Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
President Barack Hussein Obama has quashed all attempts at Justice aimed at a violent Black Nationalist organization known as the New Black Panthers who haveintimidated voters at polling places, called for the Murders of white citizens, and have issued "Dead or Alive" rewards; felonies ignored by the Department of Justice at the behest of the President seeking to inflame racial tensions in the United States.
President Barack Hussein Obama, by power of Executive Order signed on March 16 2012, has re-instituted the abominable practice of Slavery in the United States; the wording in the Executive Order is plain for all to see: "to employ persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation." (Sec. 502) Forced Labor without compensation is abhorrent to the sensibilities of the Citizens of these Sovereign States and will not be tolerated.
President Barack Hussein Obama has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, and the Sovereign States of the Middle East, the merciless Savages of the Muslim Brotherhood and their military wing known as al-Qaeda, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
President Barack Hussein Obama has provided Material Support to the Enemies of the United States, namely the Terror organizations known as al-Qaeda and Hamas; as well as providing weapons to Central American drug cartels, an act which has resulted in the murders of thousands of Mexican and American citizens, including members of the United States Law Enforcement community. These groups are designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department and any Material Support of them is a Felony for which others have been imprisoned.
President Barack Hussein Obama has directed the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Military, and the nation’s Covert intelligence agencies to train, supply with weapons, and provide air support for al-Qaeda Terrorists in Libya; a Felony. He directed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens to arrange the transfer of advanced shoulder-fired missiles stolen by al-Qaeda from Libyan armories to affiliated al-Qaeda groups currently fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; a Felony.
President Barack Hussein Obama has proven himself utterly incompetent in his capacity as Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces. Having ignored pleas for help from Ambassador Stevens for months, he stood by and watched as our Consulate was overrun by the Merciless Savages of Ansar al-Shariah, ordering Assets in the vicinity to “Stand Down.” Then he relieved of their commands for disobeying orders, Flag and General Officers of the United States Military, who had attempted to save our Ambassador and the U.S. Citizens under his care.
For two weeks after the attack on the Sovereign Territory of the United States Consulate in Benghazi, President Barack Hussein Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and their surrogates engaged in a pattern of deceit over the attack on the Consulate; lying to the American People about the events of September 11th 2012 and engaging in a cover up of monumental proportions. The Executive Branch of the government of the United States of America has lost all credibility in the eyes of the American People.
We, therefore, the People of the United States of America, call for the immediate impeachment of President Barack Hussein Obama for High Crimes and Misdemeanors against the People, including the crimes of Dereliction of Duty, Treason,and Murder.
We call on any of our Representatives in the House, and those in the Senate, any who still have an ounce of integrity, to uphold their oaths of office, and to support and defend the United States Constitution from ALL enemies, Foreign and Domestic, as they have sworn to do.
We call upon Patriots in the Armed Forces and Civil Authorities to refuse any Unlawful Order, including the forced disarmament of American Citizens, their forced detention without Due Process, their rendition to Foreign Shores, or their arrest on any Charge without a Warrant that has been signed by a Judge, and which has been issued upon probable cause.
We call upon ALL Americans to stand firm on the United States Constitution as it was written so long ago by Men who strained against the yoke of Tyranny. Natural Rights do not diminish over time, nor can they be legislated out of existence; they can only be forfeited willingly. We call upon ALL Americans to Honor the Sacred Blood which has been shed for the Liberty of ALL Americans, and hold fast to the rights which Nature and Nature's God has apportioned us.
We, therefore, the People of these United States of America, by Popular assent, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name and by Authority of the good People of these United States, solemnly publish and declare: That these United States are, and of Right ought to remain, Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Federal Government in its current form, and that all political connection between them and the Obama Administration, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor. The time has come for the Will of the People to once again be heard, before the Tree of Liberty must be refreshed with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants.
So say we all.
http://bobpowell.blogspot.com/2012/11/impeach-obama-now-new-declaration-of.html
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience have shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these Sovereign States and the citizens thereof; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their current Systems of Government. The history of Barack Hussein Obama, the President of the United States, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world:
President Barack Hussein Obama has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good, when he authorized the murders of Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Kahn, American citizens, and separately, al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son Abdulrahman, none of whom were ever charged with a crime in a court of law; thereby nullifying the 5th Amendment which states that "NO PERSON shall be deprived of Life, Liberty, or Property… without Due Process of Law."
President Barack Hussein Obama has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them, by refusing to identify and deport illegal aliens, and then denying the Sovereign State of Arizona the right to defend its own borders.
In collusion with Treasonous Members of Congress, President Barack Hussein Obama has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
President Barack Hussein Obama has attacked elected representatives repeatedly,for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
President Barack Hussein Obama has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
President Barack Hussein Obama is trying to make the Supreme Court Of The United States dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and their relevance.
President Barack Hussein Obama has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
President Barack Hussein Obama is forming among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies of Private Mercenaries without the Consent of our legislatures.
President Barack Hussein Obama has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing or ignoring the free System of American Laws, establishing therein an Arbitrary government by Executive Order, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example, and fit instrument for, introducing the same absolute rule into these Individual Sovereign States:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments, and ceding authority to offices funded by, and accountable to, the Federal Reserve.
For bypassing our own Legislatures, and declaring himself invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever, including our very right to Life, President Barack Hussein Obama has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against Us.
President Barack Hussein Obama has plundered our economy, ravaged our industry, and destroyed the lives of our people. During his first term in office he has carelessly spent as much money as every President that preceded him combined. With a National Debt topping 16 Trillion dollars Our Great Republic is teetering at the precipice of financial collapse due to his wanton disregard for the solvency of the Nation.
President Barack Hussein Obama is at this time forming large Armies of Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
President Barack Hussein Obama has quashed all attempts at Justice aimed at a violent Black Nationalist organization known as the New Black Panthers who haveintimidated voters at polling places, called for the Murders of white citizens, and have issued "Dead or Alive" rewards; felonies ignored by the Department of Justice at the behest of the President seeking to inflame racial tensions in the United States.
President Barack Hussein Obama, by power of Executive Order signed on March 16 2012, has re-instituted the abominable practice of Slavery in the United States; the wording in the Executive Order is plain for all to see: "to employ persons of outstanding experience and ability without compensation." (Sec. 502) Forced Labor without compensation is abhorrent to the sensibilities of the Citizens of these Sovereign States and will not be tolerated.
President Barack Hussein Obama has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, and the Sovereign States of the Middle East, the merciless Savages of the Muslim Brotherhood and their military wing known as al-Qaeda, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
President Barack Hussein Obama has provided Material Support to the Enemies of the United States, namely the Terror organizations known as al-Qaeda and Hamas; as well as providing weapons to Central American drug cartels, an act which has resulted in the murders of thousands of Mexican and American citizens, including members of the United States Law Enforcement community. These groups are designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department and any Material Support of them is a Felony for which others have been imprisoned.
President Barack Hussein Obama has directed the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Military, and the nation’s Covert intelligence agencies to train, supply with weapons, and provide air support for al-Qaeda Terrorists in Libya; a Felony. He directed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens to arrange the transfer of advanced shoulder-fired missiles stolen by al-Qaeda from Libyan armories to affiliated al-Qaeda groups currently fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad; a Felony.
President Barack Hussein Obama has proven himself utterly incompetent in his capacity as Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces. Having ignored pleas for help from Ambassador Stevens for months, he stood by and watched as our Consulate was overrun by the Merciless Savages of Ansar al-Shariah, ordering Assets in the vicinity to “Stand Down.” Then he relieved of their commands for disobeying orders, Flag and General Officers of the United States Military, who had attempted to save our Ambassador and the U.S. Citizens under his care.
For two weeks after the attack on the Sovereign Territory of the United States Consulate in Benghazi, President Barack Hussein Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and their surrogates engaged in a pattern of deceit over the attack on the Consulate; lying to the American People about the events of September 11th 2012 and engaging in a cover up of monumental proportions. The Executive Branch of the government of the United States of America has lost all credibility in the eyes of the American People.
We, therefore, the People of the United States of America, call for the immediate impeachment of President Barack Hussein Obama for High Crimes and Misdemeanors against the People, including the crimes of Dereliction of Duty, Treason,and Murder.
We call on any of our Representatives in the House, and those in the Senate, any who still have an ounce of integrity, to uphold their oaths of office, and to support and defend the United States Constitution from ALL enemies, Foreign and Domestic, as they have sworn to do.
We call upon Patriots in the Armed Forces and Civil Authorities to refuse any Unlawful Order, including the forced disarmament of American Citizens, their forced detention without Due Process, their rendition to Foreign Shores, or their arrest on any Charge without a Warrant that has been signed by a Judge, and which has been issued upon probable cause.
We call upon ALL Americans to stand firm on the United States Constitution as it was written so long ago by Men who strained against the yoke of Tyranny. Natural Rights do not diminish over time, nor can they be legislated out of existence; they can only be forfeited willingly. We call upon ALL Americans to Honor the Sacred Blood which has been shed for the Liberty of ALL Americans, and hold fast to the rights which Nature and Nature's God has apportioned us.
We, therefore, the People of these United States of America, by Popular assent, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name and by Authority of the good People of these United States, solemnly publish and declare: That these United States are, and of Right ought to remain, Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the Federal Government in its current form, and that all political connection between them and the Obama Administration, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor. The time has come for the Will of the People to once again be heard, before the Tree of Liberty must be refreshed with the blood of Patriots and Tyrants.
So say we all.
http://bobpowell.blogspot.com/2012/11/impeach-obama-now-new-declaration-of.html
AMENDMENT X
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.
The supreme, absolute, and uncontrollable power by which an independent state is governed and from which all specific political powers arederived; the intentional independence of a state, combined with the right and power of regulating its internal affairs without foreign interference.
Sovereignty is the power of a state to do everything necessary to govern itself, such as making, executing, and applying laws; imposing and collecting taxes; making war and peace; and forming treaties or engaging in commerce with foreign nations.
The individual states of the United States do not possess the powers of external sovereignty, such as the right to deport undesirable persons, but each does have certain attributes of internal sovereignty, such as the power to regulate the acquisition and transfer of property within its borders.
The sovereignty of a state is determined with reference to the U.S. Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land.
West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2.
STATE, government.
This word is used in various senses. In its most enlarged sense, it signifies a self-sufficient body of persons united together in one community for the defence of their rights, and to do right and justice to foreigners. In this sense, the state means the whole people united into one body politic; (q.v.) and the state, and the people of the state, are equivalent expressions. 1 Pet. Cond. Rep. 37 to 39; 3 Dall. 93; 2 Dall. 425; 2 Wilson's Lect. 120; Dane's Appx. Sec. 50, p. 63 1 Story, Const. Sec. 361.
In a more limited sense, the word `state' expresses merely the positive or actual organization of the legislative, or judicial powers; thus the actual government of the state is designated by the name of the state; hence the expression, the state has passed such a law, or prohibited such an act. State also means the section of territory occupied by a state, as the state of Pennsylvania.
2. By the word state is also meant, more particularly, one of the commonwealths which form the United States of America. The constitution of the United States makes the following provisions in relation to the states.
3. Art. 1, s. 9, Sec. 5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one state over those of another, nor shall vessels bound to or from one state be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another.
4.-Sec. 6. No money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time.
5.-Sec. 7. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States, and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever, from, any king, prince, or foreign state.
6.-Art. 1, s. 10, Sec. 1. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payments of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex-post-facto, or law impairing the obligation of contracts; or grant any title of nobility.
7.-Sec. 2. No state shall, without the consent of congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of all duties and imposts laid by any state on imports or exports shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States, and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of congress. No state, shall, without the consent of congress, lay any duty on tonnage, keep troops or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another state, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.
8. The district of Columbia and the territorial districts of the United States, are not states within the meaning of the constitution and of the judiciary act, so as to enable a citizen thereof to sue a citizen of one of the states in the federal courts. 2 Cranch, 445; 1 Wheat. 91.
9. The several states composing the United States are sovereign and independent, in all things not surrendered to the national government by the constitution, and are considered, on general principles, by each other as foreign states, yet their mutual relations are rather those of domestic independence, than of foreign alienation. 7 Cranch, 481; 3 Wheat. 324; 1 Greenl. Ev. Sec. 489, 504. Vide, generally, Mr. Madison's report in the legislature of Virginia, January, 1800; 1 Story's Com. on Const. Sec. 208; 1 Kent, Com. 189, note b; Grotius, B. 1, c. 1, s. 14; Id. B. 3, c. 3, s. 2; Burlamaqui, vol. 2, pt. 1, c. 4, s. 9; Vattel, B. 1, c. 1; 1 Toull. n. 202, note 1 Nation; Cicer. de Repub. 1. 1, s. 25.
STATE, condition of persons. This word has various acceptations. If we inquire into its origin, it will be found to come from the Latin status, which is derived from the verb stare, sto, whence has been made statio, which signifies the place where a person is located, stat, to fulfill the obligations which are imposed upon him.
2. State is that quality which belongs to a person in society, and which secures to, and imposes upon him different rights and duties in consequence of the difference of that quality.
3. Although all men come from the hands of nature upon an equality, yet there are among them marked differences. It is from nature that come the distinctions of the sexes, fathers and children, of age and youth, &c.
4. The civil or municipal laws of each people, have added to these natural qualities, distinctions which are purely civil and arbitrary, founded on the manners of the people, or in the will of the legislature. Such are the differences, which these laws have established between citizens and aliens, between magistrates and subjects, and between freemen and slaves; and those which exist in some countries between nobles and plebeians, which differences are either unknown or contrary to natural law.
5. Although these latter distinctions are more particularly subject to the civil or municipal law, because to it they owe their origin, it nevertheless extends its authority over the natural qualities, not to destroy or to weaken them, but to confirm them and to render them more inviolable by positive rules and by certain maxims. This union of the civil or municipal and natural law, form among men a third species of differences which may be called mixed, because they participate of both, and derive their principles from nature and the perfection of the law; for example, infancy or the privileges which belong to it, have their foundation in natural law; but the age and the term of these prerogatives are determined by the civil or municipal law.
6. Three sorts of different qualities which form the state or condition of men may then be distinguished: those which are purely natural, those purely civil, and those which are composed of the natural and civil or municipal law. Vide 3 Bl. Com. 396; 1 Toull. n. 170, 171; Civil State.
TO STATE. To make known specifically; to explain particularly; as, to state an account, or to show the different items of an account; to state the cause of action in a declaration.
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.
A doctrine and strategy in which the rights of the individual states are protected by the U.S. Constitution from interference by the federal government.
The history of the United States has been marked by conflict over the proper allocation of power between the states and the federal government. The federal system of government established by the U.S. Constitution recognized the sovereignty of both the state governments and the federal government by giving them mutually exclusive powers as well as concurrent powers.
In the first half of the nineteenth century, arguments over states' rights arose in the context of Slavery. From the 1870s to the 1930s, economic issues shaped the debate. In the 1950s racial Segregation and the Civil Rights Movement renewed the issue of state power. By the 1970s economic and political conservatives had begun to call for a reduction in the power and control of the federal government and for the redistribution of responsibilities to the states.
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, delegates represented state governments that had become autonomous centers of power. The Constitution avoided a precise definition of the locus of sovereignty, leaving people to infer that the new charter created a divided structure in which powers were allocated between the central government and the states in such a way that each would be supreme in certain areas.
Nevertheless, defenders of states' rights were concerned that a powerful, consolidated national government would run roughshod over the states. With ratification of the Constitution in doubt, the Framers promised to add protection for the states. Accordingly, the Tenth Amendment was added to the Constitution as part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment stipulates that "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." This amendment became the constitutional foundation for those who wish to promote the rights and powers of the states vis-à-vis the federal government.
In the early years of the Republic, states' rights were vigorously protected. An early argument involved whether or not states were subject to the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the federal government. In chisholm v. georgia, 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419, 1 L. Ed. 440 (1793), a South Carolina businessman sued the state of Georgia in order to collect for payment of supplies. The state of Georgia maintained that it was a sovereign body, and so could not be sued since it was not subject to the authority of federal courts. The Supreme Court dismissed this argument and ruled that the conduct of the states was subject to Judicial Review. In response, states' rights advocates pushed for passage of the Eleventh Amendment, which limits the rights of persons to sue a state in federal court.
In 1798, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison proposed the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves to clarify the role of states in checking the powers of the federal government. The resolutions were in response to passage of the alien enemies and sedition acts of 1798 (1 Stat. 570, 1 Stat. 596), which restricted a number of personal liberties. In proposing the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves of 1798, Jefferson argued that the "sovereign and independent states" had the right to "interpose" themselves between their citizens and improper national legislative actions and to "nullify" acts of Congress they deemed unconstitutional. The resolutions started the seed of the doctrines of nullification and interposition, later employed by New England states during the War of 1812, and by South Carolina in opposing federal tariff legislation in 1832.
From the early 1800s until the end of the Civil War in 1865, states' rights played a major role in the U.S. political process. The doctrine was most fully articulated in the writings of South Carolina statesman and political theorist john c. calhoun. Calhoun contended that if acts of the federal government ran contrary to state or local interests, then states had the right to nullify said acts. Calhoun further proposed that states had the right to dissolve their contractual relationship with the federal government rather than submit to policies they saw as destructive to their local self-interests. Followers of Calhoun linked states' rights to slavery, and thus, protecting slavery became the equivalent of protecting regional Southern interests. In 1860, seven Southern states seceded from the Union to form the Confederate States of America. The constitution of the Confederacy began, "We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its own sovereign and independent character …."
Northern leaders were also prepared to manipulate the concept of states' rights. As early as the 1820s, Northern legislatures enacted personal liberty laws as devices to block the enforcement of the federal fugitive slave law. Such laws were struck down by the Supreme Court in prigg v. pennsylvania, 41 U.S. (16 Pet.) 539, 10 L. Ed. 1060 (1842). However, when Congress enacted the more stringent Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Northerners responded by again creating personal liberty laws in general defiance of federal fugitive slave policy.
The defeat of the South in the Civil War ended the dispute, and Congress enacted the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, in part, to prevent states from denying certain basic rights to U.S. citizens. Although the Supreme Court substantially restricted the power of these amendments during the late nineteenth century, it did so indirectly, relying on states' rights arguments to justify its actions. The judicial philosophy of the times was also marked by laissez-faire capitalism. Thus, the Court would invoke the Tenth Amendment to strike down federal laws that were characterized as hostile to state interests and then use the Fourteenth Amendment to strike down state legislation that sought to regulate business, labor, and the economy.
This trend continued into the twentieth century. Until the 1930s, the Court frequently used the Tenth Amendment as a device for striking down federal measures, from Child Labor Laws to major pieces of President franklin d. roosevelt's New Deal legislation. Hundreds of state regulatory statutes were also overturned. Only when the states sought to restrict unions or control dissenters did the Court sustain these efforts.
By the late 1930s, however, New Deal policies had dramatically increased the size and power of the federal government. Proponents of states' rights argued against extensive use of the Commerce Clause, which gave the federal government the power to regulate interstate commerce, and the federal government's power to tax for the General Welfare. Given the desperate economic situation, such arguments fell on deaf ears. By the end of World War II, centralized authority rested with the federal government.
States' rights were revived in the late 1940s over the matter of race. In the 1948 election, Democrat Harry S. Truman pushed for a more aggressive Civil Rights policy. Southern opponents, known as the "Dixiecrats," bolted the Democratic Party and ran their own candidate, J.strom thurmond. Their "states' rights" platform called for continued racial segregation and denounced proposals for national action on behalf of civil rights.
Desegregation efforts of the 1950s and 1960s, including the Supreme Court's decision in brown v. board of education of topeka, kansas, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S. Ct. 686, 98 L. Ed. 873 (1954), which ruled that racially segregated public schools were unconstitutional, also met with Southern resistance. Segregationists again argued for state sovereignty, and developed programs of massive resistance to racial Integration in public education, public facilities, housing, and access to jobs.
Beginning in the 1960s, other states' rights proponents started stressing the need for local control of government. One reason was the introduction of federal Welfare and subsidy programs. The concern was that along with federal money would come federal control.
By the end of the twentieth century, a number of efforts were being made to curtail the broad power of the federal government. For example, inNational League of Cities v. Usery, 426 U.S. 833, 96 S. Ct. 2465, 49 L. Ed. 2d 245 (1976), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress had exceeded its power to regulate interstate commerce when it extended federal Minimum Wage and overtime standards to state and local governments. Determination of state government employees' wages and hours is one of the "attributes of sovereignty attaching to every state government," attributes that "may not be impaired by Congress." Less than ten years later, however, the Court overruled National League inGarcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority, 469 U.S. 528, 105 S. Ct. 1005, 83 L. Ed. 2d 1016 (1985). Nevertheless, the 5–4 majority in Garcia and the Court's difficulty in articulating a coherent Tenth Amendment Jurisprudence have left this area of states' rights muddled.
The 1980s saw a major shift in government policy. President ronald reagan agreed with the public that the federal government was becoming too involved in state government affairs. As a result, a major focus of his administration was to reduce the size and power of the federal government.
States were given more authority to experiment with policy initiatives, especially social programs, which had previously been directed from Washington. Subsequent administrations followed suit.
In the early 2000s, however, political analysts commented that a new trend was afoot: both Republicans and Democrats were pushing for federal laws that would preempt state laws, especially state laws that attempted to regulate financial corporations and other types of business.
Further readings
Drake, Frederick D., and Lynn R. Nelson. 1999. States' Rights and American Federalism: A Documentary History. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
Knowles, Robert. 2003. "The Balance of Forces and the Empire of Liberty: States' Rights and the Louisiana Purchase." Iowa Law Review 88 (January).
Mason, Alpheus Thomas. 1972. The States Rights Debate: Antifederalism and the Constitution. 2d ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
McDonald, Forrest. 2000. States' Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio, 1776–1876. Lawrence: Univ. Press of Kansas.
Richey, Warren. 2002. "Terror Could Tilt High Court on States' Rights." Christian Science Monitor (February 11).
Sample, James J. 2003. "The Sentences that Bind." Columbia Law Review 103 (May).
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