More and more state legislatures are beginning to pass bills to defend their citizens against the over-reaching powers of the federal government and to preserve their citizens' rights which are guaranteed under the United States Constitution.
Just last week, the Idaho state house passed a bill which would effectively nullify future federal gun laws by prohibiting state enforcement of any future federal act relating to personal firearms, firearm accessories or ammunition. The vote was 68-0. It previously passed the state senate, by a vote of 34-0, and goes to the governor's desk for a signature.
Arizona and Missouri have also passed legislation aimed at preventing the federal government from infringing on their citizens' rights to keep and bear arms.
Just last year, the Arkansas legislature passed bills restricting abortion in the state, with the most restrictive law being challenged in federal court. North Dakota passed an even more restrictive law, banning all abortions as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected. It too has been blocked by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright stopped enforcement of the new Arkansas law last year while she reviewed it. On Friday she declared it to be unconstitutional, citing previous court decisions which said abortions should not be restricted until after a fetus reaches viability -- typically at 22 to 24 weeks. I haven't heard if Arkansas will appeal her decision.
Her ruling, saying viability rather than a heartbeat remains the key factor in determining whether abortions should be allowed, really opens the door for euthanasia as well. If someone can't live without medical treatment or they are too old to live a "meaningful life" in the eyes of society, a physician or a family member, what's to stop family members, society or the government itself from deciding a lethal dose of a drug should be administered?
That's why the focus needs to be shifted to the question of personhood. Is there ever a time when a fetus or an old person is not a human being and can be slaughtered for the sake of convenience?
Perhaps an approach to end the abortions in this country might be for a governor and state's attorney or even a sheriff and district prosecutor to charge persons obtaining or performing abortions with murder under state murder statutes. Murder is governed by state statute, and the only way to say the laws governing murder don't apply is to strip away personhood from the unborn. The legal battles which would likely follow might force the Supreme Court to deal with the issue of whether an unborn child is a person afforded protection under state homicide statutes rather than rule based on abortion rights as defined by Roe v. Wade.
Missouri and Georgia are considering legislation which would essentially gut the requirements of the Affordable Care Act in their states. Other states are addressing the use of drones and warrant-less spying on American citizens.
My point is this: the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states plainly: "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."
Therefore, when the federal government oversteps its constitutional authority, states have the right and the duty to nullify and refuse to accept laws and executive orders of the federal government. Not to do so invites greater and greater usurpation of power and tyranny.
There are a large number of issues to which states could object and pass legislation to nullify overreaching federal rulings and legislation -- abortion issues, Second Amendment rights, Constitutional tender, the Affordable Care Act, Fourth Amendment rights, federal education requirements and the Common Core curriculum are but a few issues.
Of course, the federal government gained its control over states and local government entities by means of income tax collections and doling out money with strings attached. It seems no one wishes to lose or give up those federal dollars and grants which buy the federal government control.
Perhaps the single greatest way to put an end to unconstitutional and overreaching federal rulings and legislation is to take away the federal income tax and have all taxes on private citizens and corporations flow through state governments, with states paying to federal government only their fair share of costs for duties assigned to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution.
This may sound extreme, but how else can citizens and their states lawfully rein in the excesses and corruption at the federal level? And if things don't get turned around soon, I don't see any hope for the survival of America. The proverbial saying about being headed to hell in a hand basket will be true of our nation -- perhaps it already is!
Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer and may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 03/19/2014