Taking Another Stand for State Sovereignty
02. Jun, 2009 
10 Comments
by State Rep. Jason Murphey (OK-31)
Recently, the Oklahoma House of Representatives once again voted to support a House Resolution authored by state Rep. Charles Key, which sends a message to the federal government regarding states’ rights. This is Key’s second proposal which has been necessitated by a previous version approved in the House and Senate, but vetoed by the governor.
The resolution seeks to reassert Oklahoma’s sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and according to the resolution’s language, serves as “Notice and Demand to the federal government, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.”
The resolution makes a firm statement on behalf of local control.
I continue to firmly support local control because the ability of the people to make a difference is greatly enhanced when the power to change the law is close to the people.
For instance, people have little opportunity to make a difference in federal policy. They can call their congressmen or U.S. senators, but in the big scheme of things, it is hard for even a federal official to change policy because he/she is only one out of several hundred. This means that people have limited ability to change unfair federal mandates.
On the other hand, people have a little more ability to change policy at the state level. You may call me as your state representative and I can have some voice in changing egregious policy because I am one out of 149 legislators.
In addition, I can sponsor up to eight bills each year in order to reflect the desires of the people I represent. If a parent or teacher is negatively influenced by a bad state mandate, with a lot of effort we can make a difference.
However, if the power is concentrated at the local level of government, then people have a tremendous voice, because they easily can contact their city councilman, county commissioner or school board member.
Rarely do these boards have more than 10 members, so it is quite possible and relatively simple for the affected individual to contact every member of the board to make sure their side of the story is heard. If local officials are not responsive to the values presented, the way for people to change policy at that point is simply by voting for a new local official.
I believe that as much power as possible should be placed in the entities that are closest to the people and I believe this also was an important principle to our founding fathers, which is why they attempted to make this concept clear in the Tenth Amendment to our country’s Constitution.
Another reason the people have a much greater voice at the local level is because powerful special interests and lobbyists have a tremendous investment in federal and state level politicians. At the local level there is little influence wielded by these groups as they cannot afford to invest in every local official.
Unfortunately, years of aggressive federal government expansion has eroded these principles and it is my hope that as more states adopt states’ right resolutions and laws, we will see the start of a reversal of this trend.
Federal mandates are affecting our lives in a number of ways and in the future I plan to share some of the examples of how the federal bureaucracy’s unfortunate regulations are negatively affecting local residents.
Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie, represents House District 31, which encompasses all of Logan County and a portion of northern Edmond. He may be reached via e-mail at jason.murphey@okhouse.gov.
If you enjoyed this post:
Click Here to Get the Free Tenth Amendment Center Newsletter,
Great article, Jason. I’m also cautiously hopeful that this could be the revival of Federalism in this great union of States. It’s amazing how many people there are out there who don’t even know that the Tenth Amendment exists, and that the States are supposed to be equal (not submissive) to the federal government, and that the federal gov’t is NOT an absolute authority, but rather, a collective “agent” of the States.
When I explain this to people, a lot of folks around here (eastern MO) suddenly seem to understand what’s happening. Nancy Pelosi’s porkfest bill, her forcing of “West Coast values” on the Heartland, along with her relentless assault on the Second and Tenth Amendments, could be just the “spark” we need to ignite a new peaceful revolution to return to the principles in our Founding Documents.
Asking, demanding, begging – the federal government doesn’t work. Far off government and far off politicians are not responsive. Although state governments are a long way from perfect by any definition, being able to influence people on a more local level is far less difficult.
Great article. I want to make everyone aware that a Declaration of Oklahoma Sovereignty has been drafted and we are currently gearing up to distribute this declaration and collect signatures from the citizens of Oklahoma. The declaration asserts our states rights as per the 10th Amendment and reinforces the Resolution HCR 1028 passed by both House and Senate recently. It is a statement made, not by legislators, but by WE the people of Oklahoma that WE intend to claim and affirm our states rights that are ALREADY granted by the Constitution for the United States.
For more information I can be contacted via http://www.purpleoakpolitics.com and you can check this site as well as http://www.oktenth.com for updates on this declaration/petition over the next few days.
We do not intend to allow our rights to be violated. And this should be the sentiment in EVERY state!
I am eager to see the items Jason will list as problems that need to be eliminated. He hints at federal mandates, but I am sure the math will show that the mandates are but a tiny, tiny fraction of the usurpations.
IMO, mandates are not the biggest deal, and I hope the war will not be thought as “won” by prevailing on that front alone. The real battle lies in over taxation at the federal level in order to fund programs that are not federal in nature. That is the war that needs to be fought.
States’ rights is but a small fly in the ointment if the states aim to reclaim only a portion of their jurisdiction. The states need to reverse the role, just as Jason maintains. Local governments should be bigger and more powerful than the federal government. This all comes down to taxation. As they say, “follow the money.” Stop the money, and the beast will starve.
To follow-up, I see only one scenario of real import:
National insolvency forces a disbanding of the federal government across many sectors, and possibly, a disbanding of the Union.
If we cannot starve the federal government, it will surely fail. Do we want it to happen calamitously, and possibly violently? Or do we want to wean the federal government gracefully?
In either case, so long as the federal government has the power to unlimited taxation, it has the power to destroy.
If it could tax us 100% it would. The only reason it does not is because it would cause its own demise via a rebellion.
So, how do we force the federal government to wean itself off of our dollars? I am not sure states’ rights movements adequately focus on this.
Ending federal mandates does not address the problem. Nor does nullification address the problem, unless, of course, nullification includes the IRS, which it does not.
So, the most brilliant ideas will come by way of a civil platform among the states that takes hold in the populous AND weans the federal government of our tax dollars.
I honestly do not know how that will be done. But as long as the federal government has unchecked powers of taxation, it will continue to grow. It just might find less controversial, and more subtle, areas in which to grow, but it will grow.
I would sure be happy if the federal government just followed the constitution. If that were ever to happen, I would have little to no inclination to think that it needed to be changed….it wouldn’t be doing much to call attention to itself.
It’s going to take a lot of effort to convince people that the federal government is the greatest problem we face today. But each step towards freedom, whether it’s a non-binding resolution like many that have been introduced, or states refusing laws (nullification) like real id – is another step towards limited government that I cheer…
It definitely will be interesting to see, like Jeff mentioned, what items Jason and others in state governments will list as “problems that need to be eliminated”
Yes, I don’t want to downplay the focus to end mandates, but let me put it more succinctly.
Whatever Washington cannot accomplish indirectly, through mandates and the states, it will do directly. It will stop handing dollars to states to spend on its “Project X,” and it will create a new federal agency in charge of receiving the tax dollars and accomplishing the project.
Mandates are very easily avoidable without even a blink of the eye, as far as Washington is concerned.
A thought of Kennedy’s attempt to bypass the illegal fed currency comes to mind as a way for states to achieve economic independence from federal tyranny.
President John F.Kennedy,
The Federal Reserve
And Executive Order 11110
On June 4, 1963, a little known attempt was made to strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the government at interest. On that day President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order No. 11110 that returned to the U.S. government the power to issue currency, without going through the Federal Reserve. Mr. Kennedy’s order gave the Treasury the power “to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury.” This meant that for every ounce of silver in the U.S. Treasury’s vault, the government could introduce new money into circulation. In all, Kennedy brought nearly $4.3 billion in U.S. notes into circulation.
I am persuaded by much research that the international bankers that own the fed and other big world banks have essentially become a secretive oligarchy of puppet masters pulling the strings of the Washingtonian puppets. Most all in Washington politics who go up the ladder are members of the CFR a globalist philosophy group started by the Rockefellers (known fed banker stockholders)
Kennedy knew that shedding the fed currency was a key to freedom.
The fed fiat currency is unconstitutional and therefore can be refused entry by the states. The resisting states can band together and introduce a precious metal backed currency as is constitutionally required and logical for obvious reasons.
We have no need of a global economy as many have been brainwashed by redundancy into believing. The land we posses has plenty of needed resources for all it’s inhabitants and then some(if the feds didn’t grab it by legal fanaglery) .
The national debt was acquired by unconstitutional means and therefore payment demands of it can be declared as null and void.
Wheres the gold or whatever coming from? Ask the owners of the fed where it’s at,they stole what we had mostly when they had a lackey in F.D.R. who made private gold ownership illegal and now well regulated.
It’s logical that the more local the prevailing governmental authority the more the representatives would be held liable by their constituents.
Who wants to be walking home and end up tar and feathered?
First thing Oklahoma needs to do is get rid of that liberal Govenor and then pass this soverignty bill. this ass hole who does not represent the best interest of his people is a typical liberal moron. my family grew up in the dust bowl era in a small town in Duke Oklahoma. so I have a lot of pride in Oklahoma as much as I do in my own home State of Texas. we have got to get out of this crazy federal unuion and seceed from it once and for all. take our monies and close our borders and dare those traitors in washington city to stop us. America is corrupt and vile because of the likes of that windbag in a suit in the white house and those fools on capital hill. the worst mistake was the day we let the democrats with no morals take over the country. especially for the bible belt area we are being run over by the liberals and thier left leaning liberal aclu buddies.
to hell with the federal government and thier homosexual abortion agenda.
they get all pissy when some abortion doctor is killed yet love it when 90 million unborn children have been killed. they like the san fransico homosexual agenda and gay marriage that we have fought so hard against.
the time for talk is over the time for war is now. we have been pushed far enough. god damn obama and the liberals. seceed from this corrupt filthy union once and for all. the aclu courts ruled georgia can not make people show thier id’s when they come in to vote. what will they do next these liberal courts are bought and paid for by aclu lawyers against us. how much more before people get pissed off enough to say no more. espcially to this apologetic prick in the white house. who goes around europe and the middle east apologizing to rag heads and the euro trash. we have nothing to apologize for and we damn sure don’t bow to some rag head king or whatever. obama is a traitor plan and simple desperate times call for desperate measures. secession is the only way we can rid ourselves of this vile evil corrput washington government for them by them.
David, don’t hold back. Tell us how you really feel.