We continue that review and discussion today and tomorrow with more examples of the rest of the country telling Washington, “enough is enough.”
1) News reports indicate that up to eight states have introduced state government legislation that would attempt to keep the NSA out of their states in order to help protect and preserve the Fourth Amendment. However, it appears that Tennessee may be taking the strongest stand against the massive snooping and spying on American citizens by the NSA:
- The “Tennessee Fourth Amendment Protection Act” is working its way through both the senate and house in the state government.
- State senator Stacey Campfield is a sponsor of the legislation: “We have an out of control federal agency spying on pretty much everybody in the world. I don’t think the state of Tennessee should be helping the NSA violate the Constitution and the basic privacy rights of its citizens – and we don’t have to. This bill may not stop the NSA, but it will darn sure stop Tennessee from participating in unjustified and illegal activities.”
- Tennessee is very important in the fight against the illegal and immoral snooping of the NSA since s long-standing, secret NSA computing facility is located Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
- Expert sources claim that the NSA runs most of the data it gathers “from code breaking to word captures,” through computers at it’s facility in Oak Ridge.
- The legislation tries to impede the NSA by “refusing material support, participation, or assistance, to any federal agency which claims the power, or with any federal law, rule, regulation, or order which purports to authorize the collection of electronic data or metadata of any person pursuant to any action not based on a warrant that particularly describes the person, place and thing to be searched and seized.” In other words, protect the rights of state citizens that are guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment.
- Specifically, the legislation 1) Prohibits state and local agencies from providing any material support to the NSA within their domain including the prevention of government-owned utilities from providing water and electricity to NSA operations, 2) makes information gathered without a warrant by the NSA and shared with law enforcement inadmissible in state court, 3) blocks public universities from serving as NSA research facilities or recruiting grounds and 4) disincentivizes private entities and businesses who might try to fill the NSA’s needs not fulfilled in the absence of state cooperation.
2) In late January, 2014, the state of Missouri introduced legislation that would prohibit the state from complying with the education dictates within the Federal government’s Common Core education curriculum. The proposed legislation, SB514, would prohibit the state board of education and all other state educational departments from implementing any aspect of Common Core’s education standards. Missouri state Senator John Lamping is the main sponsor of the bill that quite clearly states its aim as:
“Any actions taken to adopt or implement the Common Core State Standards as of the effective date of this section are void.”
The Federal government is deeply involved in both the formulation and implementation of Common Core, an effort that is Constitutionally not a Federal government function.
Privacy advocates and home school supporters have serious concerns about the growing Federal government’s invasion of privacy and centralization of power within the Common Core tenets. There are intrusive data mining efforts required throughout the law as well as further erosion of state control over education.
Common Core gives the Federal government the power to collect all kinds of data from children including Social Security numbers, blood type, records of school attendance, supposed learning disabilities, religious affiliation, disciplinary records, parents’ income information. Many believe that the Common Core curriculum also degrades current teaching processes and materials and replaces it with a “one size fits all” ineffective teaching approach and associated materials.
Missouri, along with other states, are standing up to the Federal bureaucrats and their intrusion into an important area of life that they are not entitled to intrude into, the education of our kids.
3) But Missouri and its state legislators are not stopping with Common Core. In late February, Missouri House Representative Mike Moon, along with 16 additional state government representatives, filed HCR 41, calling for an Article V Convention of States to restrain the power, scope, and jurisdiction of the Federal government.
The reason for the bill? According to Representative Moon: “There is virtually no one who believes Washington is not broken and completely out of control, If this is not a time to take another hard look at the Framer’s core mechanism for balancing power between the states and the federal government – there will never be one.”
Keith Carmichael, who is the director for the Missouri Convention of States Project, further explained, “As I visit with state legislators, I try to impress on them that they not only have the opportunity to use Article V as a tool to save this Republic—they have the duty to use it. An unfounded ‘fear’ of using Article V for any reason gives us all a Constitution without it – which is not the one that was ratified; not the one many Americans have sworn an oath to uphold; and not the one many have died to protect.”
To allay misconceptions around using Article V to call an amending Convention of States, Missouri state representatives have also filed the “Article V Convention Delegate Limitation Act” (HB 2036). This legislation would define and outline rules and guidelines for choosing delegates, recalling delegates, and upholding their oath to limit proposals to the topics outlined in HCR 41. Such legislation is meant to ensure that delegates stay within their prescribed limits in a Convention of States.
4) A few more examples of states and citizens fighting back. Late in 2013, the state of Kansas passed a state level nullification gun law its “Second Amendment Protection Act." This legislation states that guns that are made and owned in Kansas, including semi-automatic weapons, are not subject to Federal firearms regulations under the Second Amendment. Any Federal agents who try to enforce the Federal gun control laws can be penalized.
5) According to a NewsMax article from early March, 2014, Michigan, Virginia, California, and Alaska have enacted laws that nullify a part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a part of that legislation that gives the Federal government the power to indefinitely detain individuals without due process of law, an action that is a direct attack on the freedom underpinnings of this country’s heritage.
Similar bills voiding this aspect of the NDAA have been introduced in 10 states, while in two states, South Carolina and New Hampshire, legislation nullifying the Federal law has been passed in at least one legislative chamber.
An Idaho state government lawmaker recently introduced a bill to prevent nearly every EPA regulation from taking effect in the state. The bill’s sponsor, Paul Shepherd, told the Lewiston Tribune that he introduced the proposal at the request of suction dredge miners who were sick and tired of the Federal oversight trouncing on their right to work and earn a living: "It appears the EPA bureaucracy has an agenda in its interpretation of what pollution is," and that his "bill pertains to any regulations not approved by the people."
The NewsMax article quotes legal scholars that the chance of many of these actions standing up to court scrutiny is quite small. However, that is not stopping the movement, with the article pointing out that multiple states are joining forces to fight the Federal government as a single united bloc on "returning healthcare to state management, for restoring federal land management to states with significant acreage, and possibly for retention of highway funds while phasing down the federal gas tax."
Fascinating and potentially dangerous stuff. For example, what happens when a Federal agent tries to arrest a Kansas resident for owning a gun that is legal under Kansas law? It can never be a thing good when three parties have guns and two of those three parties are aligned against the third party on a hot button issue like the Second Amendment.
What happens when an EPA official tries to shut down an Idaho mining operation and the mine and its state representatives say no thanks?
What happens when a state suspends the Federal gasoline tax in the state, keeping the money for itself and the residents of that state? Does the Federal government go gas station to gas station to collect back taxes?
Again, the chances of success may be small but in reality, the Federal government needs the states and the states’ employees and operations to make its programs go in a large number of instances. Civil disobedience, regardless of what the courts say, could effectively shut down many, if not most, Federal government programs. As the cases wind through the courts, likely taking years, the states and ordinary citizens can shut down many Federal programs.
When the Federal government screws up as much as it does, when the President’s job approval is at a low point and trending down, when the approval rating of Congress is only about 10%, when the national debt is over $17 TRILLION, when the Federal government is so incompetent that it cannot even build a simple website despite spending over $600 million and having three years to do so, people eventually say screw it, we will do it ourselves.
That is what is happening now and the question still remains: if the Federal government passed a law and no one obeyed it, is it still a law? More tomorrow as we explore whether or not “the center will hold.”
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:
www.loathemygovernment.com
It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w
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