by Michael Boldin
“The several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government.”
–Thomas Jefferson
Today, voters in Missouri helped bring the Jeffersonian principle of Nullification one step closer to the mainstream by approving Proposition C – the Health Care Freedom Act.
The new Missouri statute is nearly identical to Virginia’s Health Care Freedom Act – which is being defended by Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli, and was given the green light to proceed in court by a Federal Judge this week. The Missouri proposition passed the Senate on May 4th by a 26-8 vote, and the House on May 11th by 108-47 vote. Today, voters approved Prop C by a wide margin – early returns showed over 75% in favor.
The legislation provides that:
No law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer, or health care provider to participate in any health care system.
and
A person or employer may pay directly for lawful health care services and shall not be required by law or rule to pay penalties or fines for paying directly for lawful health care services. A health care provider may accept direct payment for lawful health care services and shall not be required by law or rule to pay penalties or fines for accepting direct payment from a person or employer for lawful health care services.
NULLIFICATION
The principle behind such legislation is nullification, which has a long history in the American tradition. When a state ‘nullifies’ a federal law, it is proclaiming that the law in question is void and inoperative, or ‘non-effective,’ within the boundaries of that state; or, in other words, not a law as far as the state is concerned. Implied in such legislation is that the state apparatus will enforce the act against all violations – in order to protect the liberty of the state’s citizens.
Early nullification movements began with the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. These resolutions, secretly authored by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, asserted that the people of the states, as sovereign entities, could judge for themselves whether the federal government had overstepped its constitutional bounds – to the point of ignoring federal laws.
Virginia and Kentucky passed the resolutions in response to the federal Alien and Sedition Acts, which provided, in part, for the prosecution of anyone who criticized Congress or the President of the United States.
Nullification was regularly called upon by states all over the country in response to everything from higher taxes to the fugitive slave law of 1850.
A MODERN NULLIFICATION MOVEMENT
Besides the Health Care legislation passed in Missouri, activists and state-legislators are pushing forward with nullification efforts all across the country – and it spans the political spectrum.
Virginia, Idaho, Louisiana and Utah have already passed their own Health Care Freedom Acts. Voters in Arizona and Oklahoma will vote to choose if they want to do the same in November.
Eight states have already passed Firearms Freedom Acts to nullify some federal gun laws and regulations within their states.
Fourteen states now have some form of medical marijuana laws – in direct contravention to federal laws which state that the plant is illegal in all circumstances.
And Massive state nullification of the 2005 Real ID Act has rendered the law virtually null and void in most of the country.
THE BLUEPRINT
Supporters of these modern nullification efforts look to the successful rebellion by states against the Bush-era Real ID Act.
In early 2007, Maine and then Utah passed resolutions refusing to implement the federal Real ID act on grounds that the law was unconstitutional. Well-over a dozen other states followed suit in passing legislation opposing Real ID. Since then, a total of 25 states have passed laws or resolutions defying the federal law.
Instead of attempting to force the law to implementation, the federal government delayed implementation not once, but twice. And in June of 2009, the Obama administration, recognizing the insurmountable task of enforcing a law in the face of such broad resistance, announced that it was looking to “repeal and replace†the controversial law. At the end of last year, they “delayed implementation” of the law yet a third time.
Supporters see this as a blueprint to resist various federal laws that they see as outside the scope of the Constitution.
THE LESSON
Whether the issue is healthcare mandates, national id cards, or marijuana – the bottom line is straightforward. When enough people refuse to comply with unconstitutional federal laws, and enough states stand with them through legislation nullifying those same laws – there’s not much that D.C. can do in response.
20+ States resisting DC can do what calling, marching, yelling, faxing, and emailing has almost never done. Stop the feds dead in their tracks.
Thus, the real way to resist DC is not by begging politicians and judges in Washington to allow us to exercise our rights…it’s to exercise our rights whether they want to give us “permission†to or not. Nullification – state-level resistance to unconstitutional federal laws – is the way forward.
**********
NOTE: If you’re interested in helping the momentum of the 10th Amendment/Nullification movement, please support our new event tour, Nullify Now! – with initial stops in Ft. Worth, Orlando, Chattanooga and Phoenix. Just click the banner below for more information.
CLICK HERE to view the Tenth Amendment Center’s Health Care Freedom Act legislative tracking page
The Tenth Amendment Center has released the Federal Health Care Nullification Act, which directly nullifies the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act†on a state level. Click here to learn more.
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.
…
Finally somebody is standing up to our " Thug in Chief " — Barry Soetoro.
We expect plenty more. Keep in mind that 4 states have already passed this as law before Missouri.
And – AZ and Oklahoma will be voting on it in Novemeber too. Florida had theirs thrown out by a judge – more info forthcoming, hopefully.
This sounds like a complete nullification of the obamacare bill and not just a nullification of the tax/fine that they want to charge people for not buying health insurance. It says any health care system is illegal then I would assume that is the entire bull.
Nullify, baby!! Go Missouri! Hopefully my state Colorado will follow suit with our upcoming election!
I wonder how many of these state legislators are getting copies of Nullification. Maybe it would be helpful to start an initiative to get all of them copies – similar to one called Books for Congress, which sent copies of The Creature from Jekyll Island to federal reps and senators. I think if the states start using language from the Principles of '98 that Tom Woods provides in his book, they will have an even stronger case against unconstitutional actions of the Feds.
In response to the Missouri ruling, Charles Krauthammer noted that if the Missouri vote had been on the single issue that "all citizens could not be deprived of health care coverage because of pre-existing conditions," then the vote would have likely had been the same. I think he is probably right. Too many people today accept the underlying Liberal (and Republican) premise that people have a right to health care. Until this premise is rejected by the majority of the populace, then nullification will not work, and the Liberals will be able to frame any future law to appeal to this premise and continue the incremental destruction of our liberty.
Anyone in favor of nullification defiles the memory of thousands upon thousands of Americans who fought in the Civil War or wore the yoke of slavery, womanhood, or ethnic or religious outcast. Chaos reigned when states supported the nation ala carte. It will do so again at your own peril.
The civil war was fought over nullification?? That\’s an odd rendering of history.
Nonsense. The Founders explicitly signed up for a federal government with the majority of powers to be retained by the states so that the citizens of each state could choose to live in a manner they determined to best fit their needs and desires. A la carte. What our 'national' government is trying to do is impose a top down leftist culture upon all of us. We say no.
bravo!
This is great news! But I actually have a problem with what I'm hearing about it. Based on a report in Fox News from the AP, I understand that the good citizens of Missouri are under the impression that Proposition C was merely symbolic. More specifically Prop. C is evidently thought not to hold water because, "Tuesday's vote was seen as largely symbolic because federal law generally trumps state law," did ya know?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/03/missou…
Sadly, the people of Missouri evidently don't know that, because of the federal Constitution's silence about public healthcare, the 10th A. automatically reserves government power to tax and spend for healthcare purposes to the states, not the Oval Office and Congress. So Obamacare is not only constitutionally indefensible federal legislation, but also steals state revenues that could be used to run state healthcare programs like RomneyCare.
So regardless that the people of Missouri have actually dropped a big one on Congress by passing Prop. C, they are evidently not enjoying the significance of their victory as well as they could be because of this misunderstanding.
None of these efforts will be truly successful until the states can prevent the federal government from bribing or coercing the states with the threat of withholding federal funds. The states should act as the collection agent for the federal government and then remit to the federal government only those taxes that they don't expect to receive back as grants or some other form of largess. If the states can control the taxes paid by their citizens they will significantly reduce the coercive power of the federal government. I would suggest even going so far as to remit to the federal government only enough for the federal government to do its Constitutionally limited functions and deny them funds for the countless unconstitutional bureaucracies.
how do i join the nullification movement or contact some one who can help me get started and if i am a new person will i need to make speaches
You people need to participate in the "Occupy" movement happening in major cities like N.Y. and Los Angeles (at City Hall). These people have a lot in common with the Nullification Movement and, to my surprise–in L.A.– seven City Council members have voted to support these folks, in their demand for major changes..in the mess that the USA has become. Recovery of the American republic (and the U.S. Constitution), ending these illegal and thoroughly stupid wars, calling Wall Street to task, repealing NAFTA and the Patriot Act…these kinds of issues.
God bless!!! zounds456@aol.com