Nullification Info
In this speech, I used a line that said that President Obama does not have a patent on violating the Constitution.
It started happening within a few years of the foundation of the nation. And it was done by founding fathers who certainly should have known better. It does show the wisdom of checks and balances as even the smartest people can be corrupted by power.
John Adams (one of the most influential founders) spearheaded the Alien and Sedition Acts. In particular, the Sedition Act was a broadside against the 1st Amendment. It made illegal “false, scandalous, and malicious writing” against the government or its officials. It was enacted July 14, 1798, with an expiration date of March 3, 1801 (the day before Adams’ presidential term was to end).
In reaction to this, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison developed the concept of nullification. Despite the negative connotation of nullification from the Civil War, nullification was used by northern and southern states prior to the Civil War as a tool to push back against the Federal government when it got out of its Constitutional box.
That tool has been used recently by Ken Cuccinelli as a State Senator and to a lesser degree as the Attorney General. We are proponents of nullification and interposition when the Federal government violates the constitution.
Over the next few days, we will be running a series of articles on nullification as we crank up our efforts to bring a Nullify Now tour to Virginia. We need to raise awareness of this tool to fight the issues we have with the Federal government.
First on the docket….what is the 10th Amendment and why does it matter?
It is really simple.
The Constitution lays out exactly the role of the Federal Government. They are call enumerated powers. They are mostly found in Article 1 Section 8 of the document. If the Constitution doesn’t designate powers to the Federal Government, the states and the people have those rights (under the 10th Amendments to the Constitution.)
The sovereign states of this Union set up the Federal Government as an agent to handle certain items that could not be efficiently handled by 13 states. They specifically wrote in the document that they retained their rights, specifically under the 10th Amendment.
So who determines whether a law is outside the scope of these enumerated powers? The US Supreme Court says it does, but this assumes that the states that set up the Federal Government as their agent have no rights? The Supreme Court, according to our founders, is only “supreme” regarding cases that stem from the enumerated powers of the Constitution. The Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction in cases where the Federal government is acting outside of the enumerated powers of the Constitution.
The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia is very clear on two key points: Virginia is a sovereign Republic and that the Commonwealth has a duty to protect its citizens from oppression. This gives the state the right to intercede on behalf of Virginians when the Federal Government oversteps its Constitutional powers and the duty to act to protect the citizens from unconstitutional Federal mandates.
