by Michael Boldin
This week, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal signed House Joint Resolution 2 (HJ0002), claiming “sovereignty on behalf of the State of Wyoming and for its citizens under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government or reserved to the people by the Constitution of the United States.”
Freudenthal, a long-time Democrat, was previously a US attorney for the Clinton administration, and is currently serving his 2nd term as Governor of Wyoming. He endorsed Barack Obama for president and is commonly referred to as one of the most popular governors in the country.
In a memorandum sent to the Wyoming legislature in late January, Freudenthal made clear his position that the federal government has gone beyond the limits of the constitution:
“For decades we have shared increased frustration dealing with the federal government and its agencies. What started out as a leak in the erosion of state prerogative and independence has today turned into a flood. From wolf and grizzly bear management, to gun control, to endless regulation and unfunded mandates – the federal government has become far too powerful and intrusive.”
Once brought to a vote this year, the legislature showed little opposition to sending a notice to D.C. that the federal government is overstepping its constitutional authority. The Senate passed it by a vote of 26-4 and the House by a vote of 56-4.
NOTICE AND DEMAND
These non-binding resolutions, often called “state sovereignty resolutions” do not carry the force of law. Instead, they are intended to be a statement of the legislature of the state. They play an important role, however.
For example, if you owned an apartment building and had a tenant not paying rent, you wouldn’t show up with an empty truck to kick them out without first serving notice. That’s how we view these Resolutions – as serving “notice and demand” to the Federal Government to “cease and desist any and all activities outside the scope of their constitutionally-delegated powers.” Follow-up, of course, is a must.
House Joint Resolution 2 includes language to this effect:
That this resolution serve as notice and demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, from enacting mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers. The state of Wyoming will not enforce such mandates. [emphasis added]
Wyoming joins 10 other states that have passed similar resolutions since last year; Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Tennessee passed theirs in 2009, and Utah, Alabama, and South Carolina have joined Wyoming in passing resolutions this year.
A GROWING MOVEMENT
These resolutions are part of a growing grassroots movement in state legislatures across the country as a protest to the intrusion of the federal government into state government affairs, and is an essential first step towards efforts to push back, or nullify, unconstitutional federal laws and regulations.
Supporters of such legislation point to laws passed by other states that take the next step – and work to nullify specific federal laws seen as unconstitutional by the state. Fourteen states have now defied federal laws on marijuana. Two dozen states have refused to comply with the Bush-era Real ID Act, rendering that 2005 law virtually null and void today. The legislatures in both Virginia and Arizona have passed legislation effectively nullifying a national health care plan within their borders. Three states have already signed a “Firearms Freedom Act” into law, and Governor Freudenthal is expected to sign HB95 to make Wyoming the fourth.
Resolutions, guns, national ID cards, and weed might be just the early stages of a quickly growing movement to nullify other federal laws seen as outside the scope of their constitutionally-delegated powers. In states around the country this year, bills have been proposed to defy or nullify federal laws on health care, use of national guard troops overseas, legal tender laws, cap and trade, and even the process of collecting federal income taxes.
The final goal? It’s a long way off – a federal government that follows the strict limits of the constitution, whether it wants to or not.
Note: Thanks to Brenda of WyomingWatchdogs.com for helping with this report.
CLICK HERE to view the Tenth Amendment Center’s Legislative Tracking Page for Current Nullification Efforts
Michael Boldin [send him email] is the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center
Copyright © 2010 by TenthAmendmentCenter.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
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its about time, albeit FAR OVERDUE…..but the people must be pushed to it, because they are very near sighted.
stick this government jack, back in its box, DC. and out of my pockets and life.
I just want to make a clarification that Wyoming Watchdogs, did not support this bill until the very end until it became the popular choice. Meanwhile others and other organizations were doing the hard work and rallying support, when not one alert from Wyoming Watchdogs (I do happen to receive them) was sent out to support HB95, and not even the status of the bill was updated by them until the very end. However myself and many all over the state worked very hard to rally and alert folks to urge their legislators pass this legislation HB95 Firearms Freedom Act. At the beginning of the session there was another Firearms Freedom Act HB 28, of which lacked in content compared to HB95. Therefore we rallied to support HB95 because of the Penalty and Defense Clauses it had as well as more…
Brenda from Wyoming Watchdogs stood up during the House Committee when she was allowed to speak on behalf of her organization and openly did not support Representative Jaggi's HB95, instead she supported HB28 by Rep Miller. She even voiced that opinion after speak to the committee, to other organizations right to their faces she told them, she did not support Rep Jaggi's HB 95. Her reasoning?????? because legislation should not be "long and lengthy", despite the fact that HB95 had more teeth and protection to it. According to my source who was at the capital during the legislative process of HB95. So Wyoming Watchdogs basically took the attitude "Let's compromise" our standards, to get short and sweet legislation through? What so we can rub shoulders with the legislators???? They work for us, they are to do what the citizens of the state want; not what can we do to advance their careers.
The Wyoming Watch dogs refused to cover the status of HB95 until the very end of the legislative process even though myself and others forwarded them Wyoming Gun Owners alerts several times, until they caught on that the momentum was growing around the state and through the Grassroots efforts of Wyoming10a, Wyoming Gun Owners, some members of the Wyoming Patriot Alliance, as well as some Tea party and 9-12 groups. Along with assistance via alerts from Gun Owners of America, David Codrea, National Association of Gun Rights and even unaffiliated individuals who just took it upon themselves to do what they could to support their 2nd amendment rights…
Wyoming Watchdogs were no where to be found, until the bill became "popular" so they drag on the coat tails to try and gain publicity for their organization, that has done nothing but advocate compromise and falling over backwards to appease the legislators.
It's one thing to work from beginning to end in the grassroots effort, it's another to jump on the bandwagon and claim credit for something you had absolutely no interest in until it became convenient for your organization to support.
Wyoming Watchdogs focused their efforts on particular bills just as other WY grassroots groups did, with WWDogs primary focus on state sovereignty. As a result of WY grassroots groups, a fair portion of the critical bills for the 2010 session were covered.
Personal funds for traveling were limited to lobbying efforts for state sovereignty, and thus Wyoming Watchdogs did not have the funds to travel/lobby for the committee hearing on HB95. According to the state site, that committee hearing was on 2/17/10 ;http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2010/Digest/HB0095.ht... The 'source' for the above post has given misinformation on both attendance and thus public statements by any Wyoming Watchdogs for any firearms bills.
Legislative updates were sent out on a regular basis by WWDogs and posted at their site when new information was made available by LSO; those that WWDogs updated regularly included all of the firearms bills, not merely the 2 mentioned above. Legislative Alerts by Wyoming Watchdogs stand on its own and can be viewed athttp://www.wyomingwatchdogs.com to bring truth and clarity to the misinformation from the above post.
Lastly, it is the citizens of Wyoming who contacted their legislators faithfully during the 2010 budget session who are due credit for success of the passage of any bills or resolutions.
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I would say go on an open day. Because that is when they are looking for people. If you just send pictures and they aren’t looking the pictures will probably just get trashed.