Why States Must Nullify Unconstitutional Acts of Congress: Instructions from Hamilton, Madison, & Jefferson

Freedom Outpost

During August 2010, the People of The State of Missouri approved Proposition  C and nullified key parts of “Obamacare.”  As a matter of  constitutional principle, may the People of the States lawfully do this?   Or must they submit to every law made by Congress whether it is constitutional  or not?  Are federal judges the final authority?

I will prove that the States have the Right and the Duty to nullify  unconstitutional acts of Congress.  The only real question is whether  Americans have the Will to reclaim our Constitutional Republic & the Rule of  Law, or whether they will submit to the  rulership of men who “don’t care” what the Constitution says, and who  see Obamacare as a way “to control the people”.

Congress’ Powers are Enumerated

1. The U.S. Constitution, which created the federal  government, permits Congress to make laws only on  those few objects which are listed in the Constitution. The objects on which  Congress has authority to make laws applicable throughout our Country are  itemized at Art. I, Sec. 8, clauses 1-16 (and in a few of the  Amendments).

Since the Federalist Papers are the most authoritative commentary on the true  meaning of the Constitution, ¹ let us see what those Papers say about  the extent of Congress’ legislative powers.  In Federalist    No. 83 (7th para), Alexander Hamilton says:

The plan of the convention declares that the power of Congress …shall extend to certain enumerated cases. This specification of particulars evidently  excludes all pretension to a general legislative authority, because an  affirmative grant of special powers would be absurd, as well as useless, if a  general authority was intended. [boldface mine]

In Federalist No.  39 (3rd para from end), James Madison says:

…the proposed government cannot be deemed a national one;  since its jurisdiction extends to certain enumerated objects  only, and leaves to the several States a residuary and inviolable  sovereignty over all other objects…[emphasis added]

Our Framers were emphatic that ours is a Constitution of enumerated powers  only.  In Federalist  No. 45 (9th para), Madison says:

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.  The former will be  exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and  foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the  most part, be connected.  The powers reserved to the several States  will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern  the lives, liberties, and properties of the people…[emphasis mine] ³

Do you see?  If the Constitution doesn’t delegate a power to Congress by  listing it in the Constitution, Congress doesn’t have that power.  It is  reserved by the States or the People.

Congress Usurps Power when it makes Laws outside its  Enumerated Powers – and such pretended Laws are VOID & NOT  VALID.

2. Our Framers understood that civil governments seek to expand power at the  expense of the People. And when they do so, their acts are VOID  and INVALID!  Thus, in Federalist  No. 33 (next to last para), Hamilton says:

…But it will not follow …that acts of the large society [the federal  government] which are NOT PURSUANT to its constitutional powers, but which are  invasions of the residuary authorities of the smaller societies [the States],  will become the supreme law of the land. These will be merely acts of  usurpation, and will deserve to be treated as such… [caps are  Hamilton’s; other emphasis mine]

In the last paragraph of No. 33, Hamilton says a law made by  Congress which is not authorized by the Constitution,

…would not be the supreme law of the land, but a usurpation of power  not granted by the Constitution… [emphasis mine]

In Federalist No.  78 (10th para), Hamilton says:

…every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission  under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act,  therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid. To deny this, would be to  affirm, that the deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant  is above his master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the  people themselves; that men acting by virtue of powers, may do not only  what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid. [emphasis  mine]

Nothing in Art. I, Sec. 8, or elsewhere in the Constitution, authorizes  Congress to pass Obamacare!  “Medical care” is not an enumerated  power.  Obamacare  is unconstitutional as outside the scope of the legislative powers granted  to Congress. ⁴

Furthermore, the Tenth Amendment forbids Congress to pass  Obamacare: When a power is not delegated to the federal government by the  Constitution, that power is reserved to the States or to the People.  Only the States or the People have power over medical care!

So!  Congress passed Obamacare without any constitutional authority to  do so, and in violation of the Tenth Amendment.  Hence, as Hamilton shows  us, Obamacare is “void” and not “valid”. It is an act “of usurpation,  and will deserve to be treated as such.”

Hamilton, Madison & Thomas Jefferson show us that Nullification is the Answer.

3. Hamilton shows in Federalist  No. 28 (7th para) that if the federal government invades the rights of the  People, they can use the State government as the instrument of redress:

…in a confederacy   the people … may be said to be … the masters of  their own fate. Power being almost always the rival of power, the general  [federal] government will … stand ready to check the usurpations of the state  governments, and these will have the same disposition towards the general  government.  The people, by throwing themselves into  either scale, will infallibly make it preponderate. If their rights are  invaded by either, they can make use of the other as the instrument of  redress…. [emphasis added]

So!  When the People of the State of Missouri approved Proposition C  nullifying Obamacare, they properly made use of their State government as “the  instrument of redress” against the usurpations of Congress & the Executive  Branch.

And since State officials and many Citizens have taken the Oath to support  the U.S. Constitution (Art. VI, clause 2), it is their SWORN DUTY to nullify – to refuse to obey – unconstitutional and pretended federal “laws”, such as  Obamacare.

Nullification by States of unconstitutional federal laws is not new.   Our beloved Thomas Jefferson (Author of the Declaration of Independence) &  James Madison (Father of the U.S. Constitution) show us precisely what States are honor bound to do when  Congress makes an unconstitutional law. During 1798, in response to Congress’ passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Kentucky and Virginia Legislatures  passed Resolutions declaring those Acts unconstitutional as outside the  enumerated powers granted to Congress, and as in violation of the Tenth  Amendment.  In these Resolutions, Kentucky and Virginia resolved not to  abide by the federal acts.  Jefferson wrote The  Kentucky Resolutions, and Madison wrote The  Virginia Resolution. ⁵

The Kentucky & Virginia Resolutions are masterpieces of  constitutional analysis. Study them!  States may use them as models  for their own Resolutions nullifying the myriad of unconstitutional “laws” which  have spewed forth from Congress in recent decades.

The Framers did NOT say States should file Lawsuits and let Federal  Judges decide!

4. Think: Why would the States, which formed a Federation  for the limited purposes enumerated in Art. I, Sec. 8; ask one branch of the  federal government (judiciary) to opine on whether a “law” approved by the two  other branches (legislative & executive), exceeds the enumerated powers of  Congress and encroaches on the reserved powers of the States and the People  (10th Amendment)?  All three branches of the federal government have been  unified against The Constitution, the States, and the People for a very long  time!  Why would States put themselves in the position of supplicants to a  Court which has already shown itself to be contemptuous of the Constitution, and  of the States’ and The Peoples’ reserved powers?

And further:  Can we not see for ourselves that Obamacare is outside the  scope of the Legislative Powers granted to Congress in the Constitution, and  that it violates the Tenth Amendment?  Our Framers certainly did not  advocate running to federal judges to let them decide such issues!  No, our Framers were men who had guts & backbone  and understood the Constitution! So they nullified  unconstitutional acts of Congress. ⁶

Will the American People pass the Test?

5. Will the States and the People surrender to the likes of former DNC  Chairman Howard Dean who “doesn’t care” if the stuff passed by Congress is  unconstitutional? To Democrat Congressman John Dingle who sees Obamacare as a  means “to control the people”?  Or will The People and the States man up  and defend our Constitution?

We have instructions from the Author of the Declaration of Independence, the  Father of the Constitution, and the Author of most of the Federalist Papers.  They explain what our Constitution really means, and tell us what we need to do  when the federal government usurps powers. Listen to  them! They are the highest Authority on the true meaning of our  Constitution.

And do not be swept away by rage and lust for revenge. Do not become the  murderous, unthinking red-capped mob of the French Revolution.

Let us pray that our eyes be opened, that we listen to the  words of wisdom from our Framers, that our spines be stiffened, and  that we work for a peaceful political resolution of  the dreadful problems facing us.

The federal courts have refused to enforce the Constitution. Congress has  failed to impeach & remove usurping federal judges – it has failed to be the “check” on the federal courts.  Therefore, WE  must enforce the Constitution by means of nullification.  WE must be the final “check” on the courts.   Study & learn so that you are qualified to do this.

Endnotes:

¹ At a meeting attended by Thomas Jefferson & James Madison of  the Board  of Visitors of the University of Virginia on March 4, 1825, the following  resolution selecting texts for the Law school, was passed:

…on the distinctive principles of the government of our own state, and of  that of the US. the best guides are to be found in 1. the Declaration of  Independance, as the fundamental act of union of these states. 2. the  book known by the title of `The Federalist’, being an authority to which appeal  is habitually made by all, and rarely declined or denied by any as evidence of  the general opinion of those who framed, and of those who accepted the  Constitution of the US. on questions as to it’s genuine meaning…. (Page  83)  [emphasis added]

² See also Federalist  No. 14 (8th para) “…the general [federal] government is not to be charged  with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its jurisdiction is  limited to certain enumerated objects…”

Federalist No.  27 (last para) “…It merits particular attention in this place, that the laws  of the Confederacy [the federal government], as to the ENUMERATED and LEGITIMATE  objects of its jurisdiction, will become the SUPREME LAW of the land…Thus the  legislatures, courts, and magistrates, of the respective members, will be  incorporated into the operations of the national government AS FAR AS ITS JUST  AND CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY EXTENDS…” [caps in original]

³ Medicare, Medicaid, social security, etc., are also  unconstitutional as outside the scope of the legislative powers granted to  Congress. And the programs can’t work!  As more & more people seek to  live at other peoples’ expense, the system eventually collapses. That collapse  is upon us.

⁴ Jefferson calls it “nullification”; Madison calls it “interposition”. In “interposition”, the State “interposes” – steps in between – an usurping federal government and The People. (Webster’s 1828  Dictionary.)  The result is really the same.

⁵ Furthermore, the Supreme Court is NOT the ultimate authority on  the meaning of the Constitution!  Hamilton says federal judges may be  impeached for usurpations (Federalist  No. 81, 8th para); the People are “the natural guardians of the  Constitution” as against federal judges “embarked in a conspiracy with the  legislature”; and the People are to become “enlightened enough to  distinguish between a legal exercise and an illegal usurpation of  authority.“(Federalist  No.16, next to last para).

Read more: http://freedomoutpost.com/2013/06/why-states-must-nullify-unconstitutional-acts-of-congress-instructions-from-hamilton-madison-jefferson/#ixzz2WnWJeuWV

Obama Lied- Top Secret Rules Allow NSA To Collect U.S. Domestic Data Without A Warrant-

Weasel Zippers

You can bet your last dollar the lapdog media won’t call him on this.

Via Guardian:

Top secret documents submitted to the court that oversees surveillance by US intelligence agencies show the judges have signed off on broad orders which allow the NSA to make use of information “inadvertently” collected from domestic US communications without a warrant.

The Guardian is publishing in full two documents submitted to the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (known as the Fisa court), signed by Attorney General Eric Holder and stamped 29 July 2009. They detail the procedures the NSA is required to follow to target “non-US persons” under its foreign intelligence powers and what the agency does to minimize data collected on US citizens and residents in the course of that surveillance.

The documents show that even under authorities governing the collection of foreign intelligence from foreign targets, US communications can still be collected, retained and used.

The procedures cover only part of the NSA’s surveillance of domestic US communications. The bulk collection of domestic call records, as first revealed by the Guardian earlier this month, takes place under rolling court orders issued on the basis of a legal interpretation of a different authority, section 215 of the Patriot Act.

The Fisa court’s oversight role has been referenced many times by Barack Obama and senior intelligence officials as they have sought to reassure the public about surveillance, but the procedures approved by the court have never before been publicly disclosed.

The top secret documents published today detail the circumstances in which data collected on US persons under the foreign intelligence authority must be destroyed, extensive steps analysts must take to try to check targets are outside the US, and reveals how US call records are used to help remove US citizens and residents from data collection.

However, alongside those provisions, the Fisa court-approved policies allow the NSA to:

• Keep data that could potentially contain details of US persons for up to five years;

• Retain and make use of “inadvertently acquired” domestic communications if they contain usable intelligence, information on criminal activity, threat of harm to people or property, are encrypted, or are believed to contain any information relevant to cybersecurity;

• Preserve “foreign intelligence information” contained within attorney-client communications;

• Access the content of communications gathered from “U.S. based machine[s]” or phone numbers in order to establish if targets are located in the US, for the purposes of ceasing further surveillance.

The broad scope of the court orders, and the nature of the procedures set out in the documents, appear to clash with assurances from President Obama and senior intelligence officials that the NSA could not access Americans’ call or email information without warrants.

The documents also show that discretion as to who is actually targeted under the NSA’s foreign surveillance powers lies directly with its own analysts, without recourse to courts or superiors – though a percentage of targeting decisions are reviewed by internal audit teams on a regular basis.

Keep reading…

Obama- You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming To You

Freedom Outpost

“Those who plot the destruction of others often perish in the  attempt.”

-Thomas More

As the Obama administration is being uncovered for scandal after scandal, his  plans are beginning to backfire. For example, the ever-increasing scandals at  the Internal Revenue Service are now jeopardizing critical funding for the  agency as it attempts to play a major role in the implementation of Obamacare.  Obama was planning a major budget increase for the IRS, but now the feat is  proving difficult as Congress sees that the IRS has proven to be untrustworthy.  This proves the famous, unchangeable law of sowing and reaping – the Obama  administration’s actions are blowing up in their face. Let me explain…