Today, Florida State Represenatives Workman and Plakon, along with co-sponsors Dorworth, Eisnaugle, Kelly, Precourt, and Tobia introduced House Memorial 19 (HM19), which “Urges Congress to honor provisions of U. S. Constitution & U. S. Supreme Court case law which limit scope & exercise of federal power.” (h/t David Reid)
The goal of the memorial is to serve “as a notice and a demand to the Federal Government…to cease and desist, effective immediately, from issuing mandates that are beyond the scope of [their] constitutionally delegated powers.”
Florida is now the 37th state where such a resolution has been introduced. So far, seven states have had both houses of their legislature approve a sovereignty resolution, while three states have rejected them.
See a full list of state resolutions here.
Florida Groups Supporting State Sovereignty:
Read the full text of the memorial below:
WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States proclaims: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” and
WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment defines the scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more, and
WHEREAS, the limitation of power contained in the Tenth Amendment established the foundational principle that the Federal Government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states, and yet currently the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the Federal Government, and
WHEREAS, many federal laws are in direct violation of the Tenth Amendment, and
WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment ensures that we, the people of the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union of States, now have, and have always had, rights the Federal Government may not usurp, and
WHEREAS, Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States begins: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,” and the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States declares: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people,” and
WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court ruled in New York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress does not have the authority to simply commandeer the states’ legislative processes by compelling the states to enact and enforce federal regulatory programs, and
WHEREAS, a number of proposals from previous administrations and some proposals now pending from the present administration and from Congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States,
NOW THEREFORE, Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida: That the Legislature claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the Federal Government by the Constitution of the United States.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this memorial serves as a notice and a demand to the Federal Government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, from issuing mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be dispatched to the President of the United States, to the President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, to the presiding officers of each state legislature of the United States of America, and to each member of the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.
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