Lonecowboy
Well-known member
HELENA - Republican U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg didn't say the word "nullification" last week when he talked to the Montana Legislature about federal overreach - but he certainly spoke the same language as the proponents of nullification.Rehberg, who's challenging Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester next year, told lawmakers there are "two basic visions" of the federal government in America, and the one he follows is more power to the states to assert their rights.
"It's the idea that the states created the federal government, not the other way around," he said. "It's the idea that Washington has important responsibilities, but limited powers."Proponents of nullification believe states can determine which acts of Congress exceed its constitutional authority, and then declare those acts "null and void" and refuse to follow or enforce them.
Several Republican lawmakers have introduced bills at the 2011 Legislature to nullify federal laws in Montana, such as the Endangered Species Act and federal health reform.They point to the 10th Amendment of the Constitution as their authority, which says powers not delegated to the federal government are "reserved to the states respectively, or the people."Rehberg made a clear reference to this line of thought in his Monday speech, quoting James Madison, the fourth president, as writing "the powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite."He then quoted the writing of Thomas Jefferson.
"The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government."
If freedom haters aren't already crapping in their depends, this might just set them off!
HELENA - Montana may be part of this United States, but in the halls of the state Legislature, some Republicans are saying Montana can and should ignore federal laws it doesn't like - by declaring them "null and void."
From health care reform to food safety laws to the Endangered Species Act, GOP lawmakers this session are targeting laws for "nullification," proposing bills that put Montana on record as declaring these laws unconstitutional and not enforceable here.Rep. Derek Skees, R-Whitefish, has even proposed setting up a permanent legislative commission that could review any federal law for possible nullification by the Legislature.
Skees told a House panel last week that Montana voters put Republicans in power this session because they want to stop an out-of-control federal government.
"This is an attempt to help answer that mandate," he said of his House Bill 382. "Our job is to make sure the citizens of Montana are not trampled on. This gives us the right to say, ‘Wait a minute - that's not good for Montana.' "
The push for nullification is part of a national movement, taken up mostly by conservatives, declaring that states have the power to decide whether Congress has exceeded its authority as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution.
"There are things that the federal government gets to do, as defined in the Constitution," says Bryce Shonka, deputy director of the 10th Amendment Center, a Los Angeles-based group promoting nullification. "But the list of responsibilities that the government currently oversees is far beyond what the founding fathers intended."