New Jobs Bill OVERRIDES STATE’s RIGHTS

The Blaze ^ | Sept 20, 2011 | Becket Adams

[Yosemitest]

What You’re Not Hearing About the New Jobs Bill:
It Overrides State’s Rights

September 20, 2011 at 12:01pm by Becket Adams

With the introduction of The American Jobs Act, Americans may soon witness a rerun of the Obama healthcare struggle. Much like its predecessor, president Obama’s newest bill contains certain provisions that would appear to benefit those who wrote the bill more than those for whom the bill was supposedly written.

For instance, buried deep, deep on page 133 of the bill, it states:

SEC. 376. FEDERAL AND STATE IMMUNITY.

(a) Abrogation of State Immunity- A State shall not be immune under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution from a suit brought in a Federal court of competent jurisdiction for a violation of this Act.

Come again? Under the bill’s authority, states are not immune from federal prosecution if they “violate” the act. In the event this bill passes, it will override a state’s sovereign authority as defined and protected under the 11th amendment:

The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.

By what authority does a bill that seeks to “create jobs” and concern itself with things such as “payroll relief” and “teacher stabilization” have the right to override the 11th amendment?

It gets even better:

(A) WAIVER- A State’s receipt or use of Federal financial assistance for any program or activity of a State shall constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity, under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution or otherwise, to a suit brought by an employee or applicant for employment of that program or activity under this Act for a remedy authorized under Section 375(c) of this Act [emphasis added].


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Any state that receives Federal assistance under the direction of bill automatically forfeits its sovereign immunity. Should an employe of the act seek federal prosecution, the state must abide.

They will literally make a Federal case out of it. The bill continues:

(2) EFFECTIVE DATE- With respect to a particular program or activity, paragraph (1) applies to conduct occurring on or after the day, after the date of enactment of this Act, on which a State first receives or uses Federal financial assistance for that program or activity.

c) Remedies Against State Officials- An official of a State may be sued in the official capacity of the official by any employee or applicant for employment who has complied with the applicable procedures of this Act, for relief that is authorized under this Act.

(d) Remedies Against the United States and the States- Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, in an action or administrative proceeding against the United States or a State for a violation of this Act, remedies (including remedies at law and in equity) are available for the violation to the same extent as such remedies would be available against a non-governmental entity.

It would seem that The American Jobs Act was drafted in order to achieve statist goals rather than create jobs. The authority of individual states is all but thrown to the side.

Much like the healthcare struggle, provisions such as the ones mentioned in the above will incite a strong reaction. As well it should–the stakes are too high.

Dick Morris said it well when he wrote:

It is soft tyranny that requires us to sit by passively while our ethic of cultural assimilation is replaced by a permanent enshrining of diversity. It bids we let our rights to our own property, that we have worked for and acquired, be sublimated to government power disguised as human rights. It asks that we elevate the demand for equality over that for economic initiative and the incentives which propel them.

The American Jobs Act may or may not create jobs. It will, however, lessen and diminish the individuality of the states.

“Liberty once lost is lost forever,” John Adams said.

Read The American Jobs Act here.

[Yosemitest]

Muslim terrorist Barack Hussein Obama II, the ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN CHIEF is getting it done.
He's trashing the United States, any way he can.

Anybody recall a press release telling the masses about federal intelligence notes sent warning police about this cabal?

[Venturer]

It seems that everything this POS does has a trap in it.

How much longer will we allow this man to steal our freedoms piece by piece?

Tell him to shove this bill right square up his butt.

[21twelve]

Thank you for that amazing chart. It sure ties things together. Of course - if folks would have just listened to his campaign speeches they would have realized this. (”Building America on a new foundation...”)

The following link is to an old FR thread, about an even older conservative booklet called “The Revolution Was”, written in 1938 about FDR and the New Deal. It is ALL happening again. An excerpt:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts

Outside of the Communist party and its aurora of radical intellectuals, few Americans seemed to know that revolution had become a department of knowledge, with a philosophy and a doctorate of its own, a language, a great body of experimental data, schools of method, textbooks, and manuals — and this was revolution regarded not as an act of heroic redress in a particular situation, but revolution as a means to power in the abstract ease.

There was a prodigious literature of revolutionary thought concealed only by the respectability of its dress. ......

To the revolutionary this same dreary stuff was the most exciting reading in the world. It was knowledge that gave him a sense of power. One who mastered the subject to the point of excellence could be fairly sure of a livelihood by teaching and writing {like Bill Ayers, etc.}, that is, by imparting it to others, and meanwhile dream of passing at a single leap from this mean obscurity to the prestige of one who assists in the manipulation of great happenings;

while one who mastered it {Obama and his puppet handlers} to the point of genius — that one might dream of becoming himself the next Lenin. .......

[Yosemitest]

I can't get this thread to accept "frontpage" and "constitution" under topic.
Can you help?

[kcvl]

“Tell him to shove this bill right square up his butt.”

I would love to tell him to his ugly ass face!

[aces]

The people of the USA need to start shouting this commie down, I have no respect for a lying POS who only wants to run us down to the dirt...

[philman_36]

BMFL

[Yosemitest]

I can’t get this thread to accept “frontpage” and “constitution” under topic.
Can you help?

[Yosemitest]

I see the problem now.
Some idiot moved this thread to “bloggers”.
I posted it under “News/Activism”. Why do you allow incompetents to work for you and do idiotic things like that?

[cashless]

The Republican response to this provision is as follows:

[crickets]

[NorwegianViking]

Great chart! The above link to the article only gives a 404 Error report. Here is a direct link
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/what-you%E2%80%99re-not-hearing-about-the-new-jobs-bill-it-overrides-state%E2%80%99s-rights/.

[phockthis]

Last time I looked, a “Jobs Bill” can NOT override a “Constitutional Amendment”..

[Yosemitest]

Here's that update from your source.

Update: The original reporting of this story was not entirely fair. After posting the article, it has since been brought this author’s attention that surrendering the 11th amendment under a bill of this nature it is not that uncommon or sensational.

As pointed out by The Blaze’s Meredith Jessup:


[If] a state is allocated a certain amount of funds for a road project, the initial funding for the project is a debt incurred by the state to be reimbursed by the federal government. This is so the feds can enforce guarantees of debt. It also prevents states from hiring contractors and then refusing to pay without the waiver of the 11th; the contractor would have no legal standing to sue the state for non-payment since the federal government is the ultimate source of funds.

You can find similar language in other bills [such as] The Americans with Disabilities Act.

Essentially, an 11th amendment waiver prevents states from contracting workers and then refusing to pay. Although a waiver of this type does technically surrender certain rights, it is not an entirely unreasonable arrangement (nor is it new).

Therefore, while the claim that states will lose their sovereignty if they accept any aid provided by this bill is factually correct, it is the belief of this author that the original story was an overreaction.

And for this, I apologize.

[Yosemitest]

"a “Jobs Bill” can NOT override a “Constitutional Amendment”.."

The ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT IN CHIEF doesn't believe you.

[Yosemitest]

From your e-mail:

While I attempted to post this as a reply on the thread, the formatting did not show up correctly.

Regarding the thread:
New Jobs Bill OVERRIDES STATE’s RIGHTS

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2781317/posts

While they point out that it’s “technically correct”, what they fail to consider is
that a weapon in the hands of ‘good’ is protection,
but a weapon in the hands of ‘evil’ leads to evil.

It’s like the Patriot Act -
wiretapping related to international Middle East calls helps protect and defend American citizens by picking up on any chatter that reveals anything dangerous going on.
Using that same legislation, but having it in the hands of evil, turns it into a vehicle that can now be used on their new target -
those they now call terrorists (church goers, tea party members, etc.)

Same with Obamacare. “
If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”.
“Obamacare will reduce the cost of healthcare”.
“We’re protecting our seniors”.
All of this, and more, turned out to be the exact opposite.
The bill cuts half a Trillion from Medicare, sets up death panels, costs all of us more (107% more for my family),
and more people have lost their doctor and their coverage than ever before.

Do I think that Obama, Holder and their ACLU won’t exploit the “technically correct” part of Sec 376?
Of course they’ll exploit it!!
Just as they’re exploiting the Commerce Clause to justify what they’re doing to us with Obamacare.

.... look at Sec 376 to see if it says anything like “the funds provided for by this bill”.
If it’s not specifically stated, that’s not an innocent omission. It’s deliberate.

Here’s the key right here... it just says “for any program or activity of a State”.
Then look at the definition of “program or activity”.

The Blaze author who backtracked is wrong.
The way this is written, the Fed govt will easily win their case.
Just as the Fed govt won their case against the farmer by claiming he was somehow ‘impacting’ interstate commerce.
Only this one will be a much easier win that that one was.

(A) WAIVER- A State’s receipt or use of Federal financial assistance for any program or activity of a State shall constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity,
under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution or otherwise,
to a suit brought by an employee or applicant for employment of that program or activity under this Act for a remedy authorized under Section 375(c) of this Act.<

(B) DEFINITION- In this paragraph, the term `program or activity’ has the meaning given the term in section 606 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d-4a).”

Here is the link <http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/42/usc_sec_42_00002000-—d004a.html> to 42 USC 2000d-4a which defines “program or activity”:

“For the purposes of this subchapter, the term “program or activity” and the term “program” mean all of the operations of—
(1)
(A) a department, agency, special purpose district, or other instrumentality of a State or of a local government; or

The key word here is “or”, meaning only (A) needs to apply.

Thanks, Whenifhow.