Friday, March 06, 2009

Nullification Lives!

The Principles of '98* are experiencing a revival:
Last week, HUMAN EVENTS reported that eleven states, Washington, New Hampshire, Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas, had all “all introduced bills and resolutions” declaring their sovereignty over Obama’s actions in light of the 10th Amendment.

These actions are in response to the Obama administration’s faux-“stimulus” legislation which directly assaults the rights of states to reject the money coming from the federal government. So far, several Republican governors -- among them South Carolina’s Mark Sanford and Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal -- have said they would refuse all or part of the stimulus money because of the constitutional infringements and because of the additional unfunded liabilities they impose on the states.

This week, HUMAN EVENTS is happy to report that five more states have decided to invoke the 10th as well.

These five -- Tennessee, Kentucky, Kansas, Indiana, and West Virginia -- have all begun their action under the 10th Amendment in a bid to protect themselves from what they view as nothing less than an unconstitutional usurpation of power on the part of the Obama administration.

And a commenter adds:
I find it interesting that this column mentions only Jindal and Sanford as rejecting some of the stimulus money. In fact, it was Gov. Sarah Palin who was the first governor to go on record as rejecting the stimulus, and has in fact rejected more than 50 percent of the money Alaska is expected to be in line for. Jindal on the other hand, has only rejected $98 million out of a total of $9 billion his state is expected to receive.

Besides that, it is important to note that more people are starting to realize that the 10th Amendment still exists, and has been ignored far too long.

*Note that a commenter, Michael Boldin, gives links to The Kentucky (author, Vice President Thomas Jefferson) and Virginia (Madison) Resolutions of 1798, against the Alien and Sedition Acts - but they have far broader reach than that.

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