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The States Fight Back: Scholars and Grassroots Groups Promote Statehouse Revolt

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The States Fight Back: Scholars and Grassroots Groups Promote Statehouse Revolt The States Fight Back: Scholars and Grassroots Groups Promote Statehouse Revolt By Elias Crim Summary: Spurred by the specter of fi scal collapse and mounting federal mandates, Tea Party activists and legal scholars are mounting a movement to restore power to state legislatures. They are sponsoring a wave of controversial new legislative proposals aimed at restoring state sovereignty. Some of the ideas may seem far-fetched, but without political imagination there is no political reform. The U.S. Constitution is the move- ment’s yardstick. n 2009 House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked a question about where in the U.S. IConstitution she found the authority to require every American to purchase private healthcare insurance. The Speaker responded with a laugh and then replied, “Are you seri- ous? Are you serious?” When the questioner said he was not joking, Pelosi just shook her head and took another question. Pelosi’s off-handed dismissal was representa- tive of the reaction of many politicians when Polls have shown that large numbers of they are asked where they get the authority December 2010 to do what they want to do. Her scornful voters believe the NAFTA agreements, the Patriot Act, the Wall Street bailouts and the remarks are infuriating to increasing num- CONTENTS bers of Americans who want to hold elected 2009 fi scal stimulus were enacted without politicians and appointed judges to the higher the “deliberation” required by the U.S. authority of the Constitution. Constitution. The States Fight Back Page 1 A February 2010 Rasmussen poll confi rms But when citizens insist that the text of the the public’s frustration: 59% of likely voters Constitution must be cited to show the au- now believe the states should have the right thority for congressional action their appeals Briefl y Noted to opt out of federal programs of which they are rejected and ridiculed. Page 6 disapprove. Another 15% are not sure. OrganizationTrends AFL-CIO staff writer Mike Hall wrote this Amendment to the Constitution. It reads in This was a symbolic moment: the on-air out- on the AFL-CIO Now Blog: full: “The powers not delegated to the United burst (now known as “The Rant Heard Round States by the Constitution, nor prohibited the World”) by CNBC reporter Rick Santelli “Most cults are based in some sort by it to the States, are reserved to the States that galvanized grassroots groups around the of skewed spiritual vision or the respectively, or to the people.” country. The Tea Party movement, beholden worship of a charismatic leader, to neither Republicans nor Democrats, called but there is a re-emerging cult that Limiting the Power of the Federal on Americans to take actions constraining bows down at the feet of the 10th Government federal government power. The election of Amendment to the U.S. Constitu- “Restore the Tenth” is a powerful idea. Tea Party candidates to Congress in 2010 is tion. Many of them want to bring Perhaps that’s why it’s the name of a joint a fi rst step to achieving that goal. their cultish beliefs to the halls of project of two groups dedicated to supporting Congress and are running for elec- those trying to resist federal mandates and But activists and scholars are proposing many tion this fall.” programs. The State Policy Network (SPN) other steps, some of them quite controversial is the federation of over 50 free-market state to break the grip of federal control. They Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen think tanks, with one or more in every state. are writing books, introducing resolutions is similarly annoyed by appeals to the Con- The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), a in state legislatures, and refusing to imple- stitution: Texas-based policy organization, focuses on ment federal mandates on the states. They “lower taxes, fewer regulations and smaller, are proposing binding legislation and state “This fatuous infatuation with the less-intrusive government.” SPN and IPI constitutional amendments to nullify fed- Constitution, particularly the Tenth have built impressive networks of state level eral power. And they are pushing measures Amendment, is clearly the work of experts and activists who aim to persuade to uphold the sovereignty of the states to witches, wiccans and wackos. It citizens and legislators that market-friendly determine their own policies. has nothing to do with America’s policies in state government can maximize real problems and, if taken too se- individual liberty and opportunity. They are Consider some of the emerging state sov- riously, would cause an economic a “refudiation” of the claim that the Tenth ereignty bills. The proposals are striking, and political calamity.” Amendment is the preserve of witches and not only for their variety but also because wackos. they don’t necessarily correspond to the There is nothing strange about the Tenth ordinary politics of left and right. One Los Nevertheless, today constitutional govern- Angeles-based grassroots group called the Editor: Matthew Vadum ment is in serious jeopardy. The principles of Tenth Amendment Center reports on the Publisher: Terrence Scanlon separation of powers, checks and balances, progress of these initiatives. From the Tenth and federalism used to be deeply ingrained in Amendment Center’s website: Organization Trends the minds of Americans. But they have been is published by Capital Research Center, a non-partisan education and eroded as the federal government imposes Firearms FreedomAct bills: “Originally research organization, classifi ed by more and more laws on the states to regulate introduced and passed in Montana, the the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity. private sector activities and individual be- FFA declares that any fi rearms made and Address: havior. Many of these “unfunded mandates” retained in-state are beyond the authority 1513 16th Street, N.W. require states to spend their own tax revenues of Congress under its constitutional Washington, DC 20036-1480 on programs devised in Washington, D.C. power to regulate commerce among Phone: (202) 483-6900 These impositions and others are fueling the states. The FFA is primarily a Tenth Long-Distance: (800) 459-3950 the public outcry that has become the Tea Amendment challenge to the powers of E-mail Address: Party movement. Congress under the ‘commerce clause,’ [email protected] with fi rearms as the object.” (Passed Web Site: Remember Feb. 19, 2009? “We’re think- in eight states, introduced or expected http://www.capitalresearch.org ing of having a Chicago tea party in July. to be introduced in approximately 20 Organization Trends welcomes let- All you capitalists that want to show up to more.) ters to the editor. Lake Michigan, I’m going to start organiz- Reprints are available for $2.50 pre- ing it.” 10th Amendment (or State Sovereignty) paid to Capital Research Center. bills: “Unlike the many 10th Amendment 2 December 2010 OrganizationTrends Resolutions that have been introduced might this observation apply? Their answer: an example of that toothy language. The around the country since 2008, these bills a great deal of it. Montana Tea Party Coalition is asking every are proposals for binding legislation. state legislative candidate if they will support They include language to affi rm the Woods argues that the Founders understood legislation along these lines: sovereignty of the people of the state and that it is up to the states, as parties to the to create a commission or a committee federal compact, to declare laws unconsti- “Any offi cial, agent or employee to review the Constitutionality of acts tutional. The federal government cannot be of the U.S. government or any em- emanating from the federal government.” expected to overturn unjust laws of its own ployee of a corporation providing (Introduced in six states.) making. services to the United States gov- ernment that enforces or attempts Healthcare Freedom Act bills: “The Live Free or Die to enforce an act, order, law, statute, Health Care Freedom Act is considered Dan Itse, a Republican state legislator in New rule or regulation of the government in states as either a bill or a state Hampshire took steps to convert his alarm at of the United States in violation of constitutional amendment, effectively growing federal power into action. “I knew this act shall be guilty of a felony prohibiting the enactment of any new I had to make these constitutional insights and upon conviction must be pun- government-run healthcare programs into a resolution for the New Hampshire ished by a fi ne not exceeding fi ve within the state. While many of the legislature and that I wanted to make them thousand dollars ($5,000) or a term bills have language similar to true an appeal to Jeffersonian principles, since of imprisonment not exceeding fi ve nullifi cation legislation, many of them he is of course an icon to my Democrat col- (5) years or both.” are promoted solely as a vehicle to drive leagues.” In 2009 Itse introduced HCR 6 “A a federal court battle – which is not Resolution Affi rming States Rights Based on Calling the Feds’ Bluff nullifi cation in its true sense.” (Passed as Jeffersonian Principles.” Nullifi cation proponents are sometimes ma- law in four states; introduced and passed ligned as secessionists and segregationists. one or both houses in 22 states.) Unfortunately, HCR 6 was defeated in the They are equated with the Southern politi- New Hampshire state legislature. Moreover, cians who sought to protect racial segregation The Tenth Amendment Center explicitly promotes “nullifi cation.” This is the idea that the U.S. Supreme Court does not possess a monopoly on the interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Conservative historian Thomas C. Woods, the author of Nullifi cation: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century (Regnery, 2010) argues that the Founding Fathers gave states the authority to nullify federal power.
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