Will The Center Hold, Part 3: Americans and States Push Back Against An Overreaching Federal Government

This is the third in a series of four posts where we have been exploring the interesting and potentially dangerous trend across the country where state government, local governments, and groups of citizens are taking actions to beat back the overreaching and un-Constitutional actions of the Federal government. In my lifetime I have never seen such rational disobedience against the Federal government as it continues to encroach more and more on state rights and individual liberties. 

All of the actions and movements we have been discussing raises a potential crisis that grows more and more real everyday as the Federal government spins out of control: can the center hold? Will these issues eventually be resolved by the courts to everyone’s satisfaction or are we looking at widespread civil and state government disobedience? 

And will this disobedience be contained to just the most current issues or will it become a way of life, where the country outside of Washington decides that Federal laws and regulations are merely suggestions, to be followed or ignored as one pleases? Fascinating times.

Let’s continue our review today of who is taking anti-Federal government steps and what the main issues are:

1) The Capitalism Institute recently did a web article where it listed out all of the states that are moving forward to combat the Federal government on a number of fronts:

- At least nine states have taken a legitimate stand to protect themselves against Obama Care:

• Arizona
• Oklahoma
• Missouri
• Tennessee
• Mississippi
• Georgia
• Indiana
• Ohio
• South Carolina

- At least fifteen states have introduced or passed legislation to nullify Federal government gun control laws:

• Alaska
• Arizona
• Missouri
• Mississippi
• Tennessee
• Idaho
• Kansas
• Florida
• Georgia
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Michigan
• New Hampshire

- Other states are taking steps to legally outlaw all sorts of Federal unconstitutional laws, agencies, and regulations using Constitutional doctrine including:

• Arizona and California have introduced legislation which would ban the NSA from conducting any of Obama’s illegal domestic spying within their state borders. 
• The Idaho state government introduced a bill which would nullify the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) unconstitutional (and economically-destructive) regulations.
• South Carolina‘s House just recently voted unanimously (100-0) to ban the use of drones without a warrant.

- Two states, Colorado and Washington, have legalized the use of marijuana in their states for recreational purposes, in clear violation of Federal laws.

Unprecedented actions to tell the Federal government and the Washington political class to get out of town. The article can be accessed at the following link, which in itself has links to each of the state level actions listed above. There you can verify what is going on in detail in each state on each issue:

http://www.capitalisminstitute.org/media-ignoring-nullification/

2) As the so-called “nullification movement” has grown, one source has taken the lead in helping to restore the tenets of the Constitution and freedom in the country. The Tenth Amendment Center is dedicated to helping states use the nullification power of the Constitution to fight Federal government overreach, Washington tyranny, and the destruction of liberty. The Capitalism Institute article mentioned above also contained some of their philosophy: 

We don’t identify with political parties. When Republicans are in power, we get lambasted by the right for being “communists” for opposing unconstitutional republican programs. When Democrats are in power, we get lambasted by the left for being “racists” for opposing unconstitutional democrat programs. If you’re not catching any flak, you’re not over the target.

And since our goal is the Constitution, we’re always over the target to the establishment. The Constitution. Every issue, every time. No exceptions, no excuses.

Their extensive website can be accessed at:

http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/

Not only are the actively fighting back against Obama Care, spying on citizens, gun control, and the RPA, they are also active on other at least thirteen un-Constitutional laws, agencies, and programs, including Common Core, indefinite detention, and the TSA.

Their effort is legitimized by the very simple Tenth Amendment to the Constitution: The powers not delegated to the Untied States by the Constitution, or prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. 

This Amendment is very specific: if the Constitution does not specifically allow a program or function, the Federal government has no right to force it on the states or citizens, and the states and citizens have no obligation to obey it, since it is not a valid function under our system of government.

This is not been an issue in the past since the Federal government was never so overbearing and intrusive into our lives as it has become recently. This has nothing to do with being racists (let’s nip that argument in the bud right now), it has nothing to do with being lawless, it has nothing to do with being selfish, it has everything to do with being true to the Constitution and principles of freedom it bestowed on every U.S. citizen.

Maybe if this movement had started earlier we would not have a $17 TRILLION national debt, we would not have a Federal government that spies on every communication we create, we would not have a Federal government that assassinates citizens without due process, we would not have a Federal government that thinks it contain detain citizens indefinitely without trial, etc.

3) Even the main stream media is getting the sense is that the ground is starting to tremble underneath the Federal government. A USA Today article from February 23, 2014, "Americans Rising Up Against Government; Three Examples Of Pushback Against the Ruling Class," discussed some of the same types of disobedience and actions we have been discussing this week:

- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently canceled plans to build a nationwide license plate database. The department had put out a bid request for a national system that would have allowed the Federal government track millions of people's comings and goings in their car, just like it does by tracking data about every electronics communications we make. 

But the proposal and plans were suddenly shut down, accompanied with the unconvincing explanation that it was all a mistake, oops! Could it be that somewhere, somehow enough pressure was put on the department to shut down what is obviously a Federal overreach into the privacy of innocent citizens rather than a silly mistake? Score one for the Fourth Amendment and privacy.

- The Federal Communications Commission withdrew another intrusive Federal government plan, a plan that was supposed to "monitor" news coverage at not only broadcast stations, but also at print publications that the FCC has no authority to regulate. In Communist Russia this was called the Pravda principle of free journalism, the ruling political class controlled the news. 

Unbelievably in a supposedly free country, the "Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs," or CIN, involved the FCC sending people to question reporters and editors about why they chose to run particular stories. 

Besides violating the First Amendment guarantee of a free press, many found this type of government intrusion to be right out of Orwell’s 1984 novel. What is interesting, and really suspicious, is who ordered the monitors since according FCC Commissioner: "This has never been put to an FCC vote; it was just announced." No one seems to know who announced it and who wanted it but the outrage across the country was enough to kill the program, at least for now, and protect the First Amendment intact.

And it is not just states and citizens fighting back against the Federal government. In Connecticut, it is citizens fighting back against a recent Connecticut state gun control law. According to the article, in Connecticut a massive new gun-registration scheme is also facing civil disobedience: "Three years ago, the Connecticut legislature estimated there were 372,000 rifles in the state of the sort that might be classified as 'assault weapons,' and 2 million plus high-capacity magazines. ... But by the close of registration at the end of 2013, state officials received around 50,000 applications for 'assault weapon' registrations, and 38,000 applications for magazines."

If the state estimates are even close to being right, it is pretty obvious that a lot of Connecticut citizens are telling their own state government to take a hike and are just ignoring what is meant to be a state law affecting everyone in the state. In this instance there are two very unattractive options for the state government. 

First, the state’s law enforcement forces could go door to door and arrest citizens suspected of being in violation of the law. This could have three possibly bad consequences:

• The storming of residents’ households to make arrests and look for weapons could be a public relations disaster as it looks like storm troopers breaking down innocent people’s doors without sufficient cause.
• It is pretty obviously that the state does not have a good handle on who has what weapons so the breaking down of doors could prove pretty fruitless but cost a lot of money and bad PR.
• Someone takes their Second Amendment rights very seriously and starts fighting/shooting back rather than having their door broken down by a SWAT team, resulting in gunfire and possible loss of life.

In any of the three cases, the state political class and supporters of this law come off poorly.

The second bad option for the state political class is described by the USA Today article: “The Hartford (Conn.) Courant is demanding that the state use background-check records to prosecute those who haven't registered, but the state doesn't have the resources and it's doubtful juries would convict ordinary, law-abiding people for failure to file some paperwork.” 

Bad options all around for the state political class that has overreached into the lives and Constitutional rights of its citizens and now finds itself in a box with only bad options as next steps.

The author of the article, Glenn Harlan Reynolds, finishes with a sentiment that we have also raised this week: “Though people have taken to the streets from Egypt, to Ukraine, to Venezuela to Thailand, many have wondered whether Americans would ever resist the increasing encroachments on their freedom. I think they've begun.”

Thus, the original question stands: will the center hold? Stay tuned.

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

Will The Center Hold, Part 1: Americans and States Fight Back Against An Overreaching Federal Government

I am 60 years old. I have seen the debacle and divisions in the country caused by the Vietnam war and the resultant anti-war violence and activities during the Johnson and Nixon administrations. I lived through the lifeless and ineffective Carter administration. Since Reagan, I have seen numerous and useless U.S. military invasions and economic hardships that have tried the country’s patience.

However, throughout the needless wars, the protests, the economic downturns, the lackluster, corrupt, and criminal leadership in Washington, I do not recall us ever being so close to a severe Constitutional crisis. This crisis threatens to substantially divide the country along the lines of state rights and individual freedom vs. overreaching Federal government power, an overreach that often and lately has crossed over the line of Constitutionality.

A number of factors are contributing to this fissure between the people and their state governments on one side versus the political class in Washington on the other side:

1. Washington has tried to dictate to the states how a national health care program is to be run even though about two thirds of the states have opted out of the national program by not establishing their own state health care exchanges as stipulated by Osama Care’s tenets.
2. Washington, via Obama Care, has violated the First Amendment’s freedom of religion protection.
3. Washington has spied on every American and continues to do so, causing some states to rise up against this violation of the Fourth Amendment.
4. Washington has tried to squash Second Amendment rights with a blitz of actual and proposed gun control laws and edicts that do not sit well with many states and with a vast number of citizens.
5. Washington is trying to force every state, every school, and every citizen to adhere to a national Federal government mandated education curriculum called Common Core even though it has proven to be deficient in actually improving the education attainment in this country and has little flexibility regarding different needs of different students and states.

Washington is trying to force its control into states' areas of responsibility, as laid out in the Constitution, and into the states’ citizens’ lives. This is resulting in the following unique, severe, and aggressive actions being taken up by those states to protect their Constitutional rights and the rights and privacy of their citizens, a push back I have never seen in my lifetime:

1) The Education Action Group reported on January 29, 2014 that a Colorado state senator, Vick Marble, has introduced legislation that would push back the implementation of Washington’s Common Core education programs for one year. The purpose of the delay is create time so that a state task force would be able to study implementation of the Colorado academic standards, including the Common Core. The state task force would report its findings and make recommendations to state lawmakers and the Colorado State Board of Education by December, 2015.

Marble’s bill would also identify an outside group “to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of implementing the new standards and new tests.” What was Marble‘s reasoning behind creating the delay: “The bill is intended to give Colorado the time it needs to explore Common Core in all aspects instead of handing over our children to an experimental education program with no proven track record of success.”

Additionally, a member of the house of representatives in the state government is introducing similar legislation. Whether either effort gets anywhere remains to be seen but at least some people and citizens in Colorado are saying “slow down” before they blindly accept a program forced upon them by the Federal government.

2) In late January, Oklahoma state government Representative Mike Ritze introduced state legislation that would be similar to that of South Carolina's Obama Care’s “nullify” legislation. Both states’ legislation would essentially gut the Affordable Care Act in their state.

Ritze’s bill, HB2421, states that:

• "An agency, officer, or employee of the state [Oklahoma] shall not…engage in an activity that aids any person in the enforcement of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. [I.e. Obama Care]" 
• The legislation bars Oklahoma from setting up a state-run Obama Care health insurance exchange to support Obama Care.
• It prohibits the purchase of insurance from an exchange set up by a non-profit. 
• It also blocks any state agency or personnel from conducting involuntary home inspections as provided for in the Obama Care legislation.

This attempt to “nullify” this Federal law is being done under the auspices of the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution:

The Powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, and not prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

The purpose of this amendment was to do prevent exactly what the Federal government and the Obama administration are doing now in so many ways, intruding into the rights and lives of states and citizens. This is Oklahoma’s way of pushing back along Constitutional lines and openly defying a national law passed in Washington.

What is interesting is that Oklahoma is not a solitary “renegade” state. News sources identify other states including South Carolina, Indiana, Tennessee, Missouri, and Georgia having also put forth their own efforts to nullify Obama Care.

Which raises an interesting question: what if the Federal government enacted a law and no one, state governments and citizens alike, ignored it? Or nullified it? 

3) News reports out of South Carolina in late January, 2014 reported on another worthy state effort to protect its citizens and Constitutional rights. It is no secret that the Obama administration has shredded the Fourth Amendment rights and privacy rights of every U.S. citizen by blatantly collecting and storing information on every conceivable electronic communication that every American creates.

These collection and storage processes are done without probable cause and without a properly obtained warrant from a proper court of law. It is a gross violation of the Fourth Amendment no matter how viewed. Saying this massive data collection is needed for national security is a farce, the data and information collected is far more likely to be used for political gain and revenge.

Which brings us to another uncharted frontier regarding invasion of our privacy. The U.S. has been a major user of unmanned drone aircraft around the war, using them extensively to bomb suspected terrorist havens around the world. Which has given rise to an new fear and threat to the Fourth Amendment: what if this same government decides to deploy drones to spy on Americans?

Well, in another attempt to nullify Federal interference in our lives, the South Carolina state senate late last month began considering a bill to virtually ban the use of drones without a warrant in its airspace. A similar proposal (HR3514) recently passed the South Carolina state house unanimously, with a vote of 100-0.

Details behind this worthwhile effort includes the following:

• House bill 3514 (H3514) would prohibit the operation of drones by any government agency unless it is “pursuant to a criminal warrant issued by a court of competent jurisdiction.”
• Although all of the sponsors of the legislation were Republicans, the unanimous support shows a strong bipartisan effort to block the Obama administration’s drone program. The The ACLU has weighed in on this domestic drone issue on a national level as well, warning that “unregulated drone use could pose serious threats to our privacy.”
• The South Carolina legislation does include some narrow exceptions to the warrant requirement to reduce the trepidations of state law enforcement entities who want to be able to act in emergency situations when a drone’s use might mean the difference between life or death.
• Even so, the bill still retains strict standards governing the use of a drone when authorized. 
• For one thing, the law would ban any sort of weapon from ever being mounted on a drone in South Carolina.
• Once a drone was used, law enforcement would have to keep records on the results of their surveillance. 
• Other sections of the bill would prevent law enforcement from retaining any drone-obtained personal information not relevant to a criminal investigation. 
• Amanda Bowers of Tenth Amendment Center was quoted in news articles stating that South Carolina could join a growing number of states putting strict limited on drone usage within their state borders: “Already, a number of states have passed similar bills into law, and we are expecting more in the coming weeks and months. From California to Washington State, and from New York to Missouri, legislators and the general public from left to right want to see a dangerous future stopped before it happens.”
• Similar laws apparently were signed into law in 2013 in Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Interesting, dynamic stuff. States and citizens telling the overreaching Federal government to pound sand when it comes to dictating education standards, dictating health care standards and operations, and potentially violating the Fourth Amendment rights of citizens with the new technology of drones. All seemingly legal and above board according to the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.

One has to wonder if Common Core had been a decent program, if Obama Care actually had a chance to work (it doesn't), and if the Federal government was not already grossly violating the Fourth Amendment and privacy rights of citizens if the state governments and leadership would have done anything as drastic as to invoke its Tenth Amendment rights.

Given that such action has not occurred to my knowledge over the past 60 years, I have to conclude that Common Core, Obama Care, and drone intrusions are really as bad as these states think they are.

Which gets us back to the basic question we proposed above: what if the Federal government enacted a law and everyone, state governments and citizens alike, ignored it? Do the ties that bind us together as one nation, as dictated by the Constitution, become the loosened and if so, to what degree? More on the rebellion tomorrow.

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