Posted on 01/11/2013 7:58:50 PM PST by morethanright
By Mr. Curmudgeon:
"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 United States Constitution.
Many Americans mistakenly define the above as "states rights." States have no rights ... people do. As the Declaration of Independence states, "...Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." The purpose of that power is first and foremost to "secure" the individual "rights" of every free man and woman.
The state legislature of Wyoming is considering a bill (HB0104) that prohibits state authorities from enforcing "any act, law, statute, rule or regulation of the United States government relating to a personal firearm, firearm accessory or ammunition that is owned or manufactured commercially or privately in Wyoming and that remains exclusively within the borders of Wyoming."
The Firearm Protection Act further states, "Any official, agent or employee of the United States government who enforces or attempts to enforce any act, order, law, statute, rule or regulation of the United States government upon a personal firearm, a firearm accessory or ammunition that is owned or manufactured commercially or privately in Wyoming and that remains exclusively within the borders of Wyoming shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be subject to imprisonment for not less than one year and one day or more than five years, a fine of not more than five thousand dollars, or both."
Annie-Rose Strasser at Thinkprogress says the Wyoming bill has "one glaring problem ... If the federal government were to pass ... [restrictive gun] measures, the bill would be unconstitutional. The constitutional theory they are implementing is called 'nullification' - where a state nullifies a federal law, in this case gun safety measures. The constitution actually stipulates that federal law 'shall be the supreme law of the land.'"
Under the doctrine of nullification (what the Kentucky Resolution of 1798 called "interposition"), the individual states - whose powers are unlimited - agreed at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to grant a limited portion of their powers to a national government. When the national government oversteps these limits, its creators - the states - have the authority to nullify unconstitutional laws enacted by an overreaching Washington.
The Kentucky Resolution was conceived in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798), four laws passed by Congress that threatened fines or imprisonment to those who "write, print, utter, or publish ... any false, scandalous and malicious writing" against" the government or any of its officials. Twenty newspaper editors were arrested - along with Rep. Matthew Lyon of Vermont. His Crime? He wrote a letter attacking President John Adams for his "unbounded thirst for ridiculous pomp, foolish adulation, and self-avarice."
You see, the Sedition Acts' unconstitutional abridgments of free speech and redress of grievances were enacted several years before the U.S. Supreme Court usurped its power as sole arbiter of what is or isn't constitutional.
According to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (who drafted the Kentucky resolution), that power properly resides with the people and their elected state representatives. A portion of the Kentucky Resolution reads as follows:
"That the several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but ... they constituted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each state to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force ... that, in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states, who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose, for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining, within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties, appertaining to them."
Jefferson later wrote: "I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition."
Don't you just love Jefferson! Progressive Washington - which includes the Supreme Court - has "taken possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition."
Progressives would have you believe that folks, like Jefferson, who believe political power belongs "to the States or to the people" are unsophisticated hayseeds. That the history of America - that they can't find on a map - began with Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal; that the states came about as an afterthought.
The unsophisticated rubes of the Progressive left would love for us to forget our history and the nation's traditions of liberty lest "We the People" thwart the Progressive claim to boundless fields of power.
Wyoming's state legislature is poised to remind authoritarian Washington that the power to declare congressional acts unconstitutional rests with the states ... not the Supreme Court. Wyoming's Firearm Protection Act will probably be declared unconstitutional by the usurping black-robed high priests of the Supreme Court, if not violently challenged by federal troops should Wyoming carry through with the bill's mandates. But it will unmask Washington's naked tyranny and make full ripe its injury to our liberty and state sovereignty.
And thus begins a state-led resistance movement.
Article shared using the Free Republish tool on Tea Party Tribune.
Thank you, Wyoming!
Nothing. There are no business licenses in WY.
Just hang up your shingle like the old days.
WY also has one of these lowest tax bills in the nation.
I wonder if they would accept me as an immigrant someday.
I hope every state does this. (well, the very bllue ones won’t.)
I’d be angry at Texas for not beating Wyoming to the punch, but the Texas legislature is not in session.
Love the pic Drudge has up of Perry holding his firearm.
“I wonder if they would accept me as an immigrant someday.”
Just go for the dual citizenship they’re offer these days for a limited time only!
“Annie-Rose Strasser at Thinkprogress says the Wyoming bill has “one glaring problem ... If the federal government were to pass ... [restrictive gun] measures, the bill would be unconstitutional.”
Nonsense, since such federal laws themselves are unconstitutional. Gun grabbers are criminals and should be thrown in jail:
“Section 241 of Title 18 is the civil rights conspiracy statute. Section 241 makes it unlawful for two or more persons to agree together to injure, threaten, or intimidate a person in any state, territory or district in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution or the laws of the Unites States, (or because of his/her having exercised the same). Unlike most conspiracy statutes, Section 241 does not require that one of the conspirators commit an overt act prior to the conspiracy becoming a crime.
The offense is punishable by a range of imprisonment up to a life term or the death penalty, depending upon the circumstances of the crime, and the resulting injury, if any.”
http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/crm/241fin.php
Lord knows I wish Perry was POTUS instead of what we have now. Next time around , we cannot beat the hell out of our Republican candidates. We need to circle the wagon like the democrats and maybe we can win the nest election!
ScottfromNJ wrote
“To: morethanright
“Annie-Rose Strasser at Thinkprogress says the Wyoming bill has “one glaring problem ... If the federal government were to pass ... [restrictive gun] measures,the bill would be unconstitutional.”
Nonsense,since such federal laws themselves are unconstitutional. Gun grabbers are criminals and should be thrown in jail:
“Section 241 of Title 18 is the civil rights conspiracy statute. Section 241 makes it unlawful for two or more persons to agree together to injure,threaten,or intimidate a person in any state,territory or district in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution or the laws of the Unites States,(or because of his/her having exercised the same). Unlike most conspiracy statutes,Section 241 does not require that one of the conspirators commit an overt act prior to the conspiracy becoming a crime.
The offense is punishable by a range of imprisonment up to a life term or the death penalty,depending upon the circumstances of the crime,and the resulting injury,if any.”
http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/crm/241fin.php
8 posted on Fri Jan 11 2013 23:42:02 GMT-0600 (CST) by ScottfromNJ
“Two or more” could be 0 and his sidekick..... but then we’d have... boner :0
Texas beats Wyoming in football each year, so we figured we ought to beat them at something. ;-)
Ah, but the Texas legislature is in session! The 140 day session started Jan. 7. Thus far, 6 bills have been filed relating to firarms. Unfortunately, a Wyoming type "nullification" nor an Oklahoma type "Constitutional carry" nor a campus carry, bill has been posited. 135 days to go. We, in Texas, can always hope.
OOOOPPPS! My bad!!!
I saw the picture. Perry had his finger on the trigger. What an idiot.
Good on ya, Wyoming!
More states need to be reminded of nullification as a way to deal with Federal overreach.
Neither the Declaration nor the Constitution establish a supreme central government. And, the Constitution is very precise and clear in its words and its intent...
The enumerated powers outlined in the Constitution are the framework within which the central government has jurisdiction. The fact that the words and intent and of the Founders have been usurped by power grabbing socialists is a sad commentary on the state of patriotism in the US.
But it is the reality we face.
It is time to force the federal government back within the confines of the Constitution, and reclaim the freedoms we have given up over the last 200 years.
This may not be connected to anything of this topic but the timing is suspicious, the feds for many years contributed to the upkeep of the Alaska Highway on a notoriously bad section for many miles before crossing into Alaska from Canada.
Some people are saying its a warning to Alaska to not be getting any wild ideas.
This is untrue -- a corporation entering into a contract gains rights from that contract. For example, if your company contracts with another, say to provide for the raw materials [say Iron] you need in exchange for 5 cents/ton above the opening market-value each month for the tonnage you'll need for the month & preference on delivery, and the other company goes out of its way to provide other companies their product first -- then your company has legal rights stemming from the contract.
Likewise, the Federal government was created by the contract that is the Constitution, the other parties -- being the States -- do have rights.
Now, if you were to qualify your statement with the word 'natural' I would be in full agreement with you: States do not have natural rights.
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