AUSTIN - November 23, 2014 - A Texas representative has
introduced a bill that would create a joint legislative committee for the expressed
purpose of nullifying unconstitutional federal laws.
House Bill 98, introduced by Rep. Dan Flynn, Van-R, would create
a joint legislative committee that would consist of 14
members, including
the speaker of the house, the lieutenant governor, six members of the house of representatives appointed by the
speaker of the house, and six members of
the senate appointed by the lieutenant governor.
Interestingly, the bill, titled the "Texas Balance of Powers
Act," specifically creates limits of the number of committee
members that can belong to the same political party, with no
more than four house members of the committee, including the speaker of the
house, and four senate members of the committee, including the lieutenant
governor. The members of the committee would serve two year terms.
If the committee determines the federal law is unconstitutional,
it is considered null in void in the state unless the legislature decides to
vote otherwise. The bill also contains an enforcement clause, calling on the
state to actively resist any attempt to enforce a nullified federal law.
The bill begins with the following:
"The people of the several states comprising the United
States of America created the federal government to be their agent for certain enumerated
purposes and nothing more.
The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
defines the total scope of federal power as including only those powers
specifically delegated by the people to the federal government. Those powers
not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states or to the
people themselves."
The bill then explains why its existence is necessary:
The federal government has acted in a manner inconsistent
with the language, intent, and spirit of the United States Constitution in
direct violation of the constitution and the contract between this state and
its people, and the United States. This
state rejects the unauthorized and excessive abuse of power by the federal
government that infringes on the rights of this state and its people and that unconstitutionally
undermines, diminishes, and disregards
the balance of powers between the states and the federal government established
by the constitution.
It also contains an explanation of the Commerce Clause, as well
as the Necessary and Proper Clause, according to the context in which they were
written.
This is exactly what the Tenth Amendment Center has advocated
for years, having the states retake authority they never delegated to the
federal government via the Constitution through the use of nullification.
As Thomas Jefferson remarked, "In questions of power,
then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from
mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
How to do that? Jefferson made it clear in 1798, when he wrote,
"Whensoever the general government assumed undelegated powers ...a nullification
of the act is the rightful remedy."
Source:http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2014/11/texas-bill-would-create-a-mechanism-to-review-and-nullify-all-federal-acts/
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