Numerous states are currently declaring or have already declared sovereignty, including:
Washington
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?year=2009&bill=4009
New Hampshire
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2009/HCR0006.html
Arizona
http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/49leg/1r/bills/hcr2024p.htm
Montana
http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2009/billhtml/HB0246.htm
Michigan
http://legislature.mi.gov/doc.aspx?2009-HCR-0004
Missouri
http://www.house.mo.gov/content.aspx?info=/bills091/bills/HR212.HTM
Oklahoma
http://axiomamuse.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/state-legislator-charles-key-wants-to-limit-federal-power
California
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/93-94/bill/sen/sb_0001-0050/sjr_44_bill_940829_chaptered
Georgia
http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/1995_96/leg/fulltext/sr308.htm
Possibly: Colorado, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Montana, Arkansas, Idaho,
Indiana, Alaska, Kansas, Alabama, Nevada, Maine, Illinois
It is interesting to note that Arizona explicitly speaks about
continuity of government and the role of servicemen.
..”if the President or any other federal entity attempts to institute
martial law or its equivalent without an official declaration in one
or more of the states without the consent of that state …
individual members of the military return to their respective
states and report to the Governor until a new President is elected;…”
Full text: http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/49leg/1r/bills/hcr2024p.htm
“The Tenth Amendment was intended to confirm the understanding of
the people at the time the Constitution was adopted, that powers
not granted to the United States were reserved to the States or to
the people. It added nothing to the instrument as originally
ratified.” — United States v. Sprague, 282 U.S. 716, 733 (1931).
H-1028.1 HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4009
State of
By Representatives Shea, Klippert, Condotta, Kretz, Anderson, McCune and Kristiansen
Read first time 01/30/09.
Referred to Committee on State Government & Tribal Affairs.
1 TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND
2 TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF
3 REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
4 UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE
5 SENATE AND SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF EACH STATE’S
6 LEGISLATURE OF THE
7 We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of
8 the State of
9 represent and petition as follows:
10 WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
11 States specifically provides that, “The powers not delegated to the
12 United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States,
13 are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”; and
14 WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal
15 power as being those powers specifically granted to it by the
16 Constitution of the
17 WHEREAS, Federalism is the constitutional division of powers
18 between the national and state governments and is widely regarded as
19 one of
p. 1 HJM 4009
1 WHEREAS, James Madison, “the father of the Constitution,” said,
2 “The powers delegated to the federal government are few and defined.
3 Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and
4 indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external
5 objects, [such] as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. The
6 powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects
7 which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties,
8 and properties of the people.”; and
9 WHEREAS, Thomas Jefferson emphasized that the states are not
10 “subordinate” to the national government, but rather the two are
11 “coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. The one is
12 the domestic, the other the foreign branch of the same government.”;
13 and
14 WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton expressed his hope that “the people
15 will always take care to preserve the constitutional equilibrium
16 between the general and the state governments.” He believed that “this
17 balance between the national and state governments forms a double
18 security to the people. If one [government] encroaches on their
19 rights, they will find a powerful protection in the other. Indeed,
20 they will both be prevented from overpassing their constitutional
21 limits by [the] certain rivalship which will ever subsist between
22 them.”; and
23 WHEREAS, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means
24 that the federal government was created by the states specifically to
25 be limited in its powers relative to those of the various states; and
26 WHEREAS, Today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated as
27 agents of the federal government; and
28 WHEREAS, Many federal mandates are directly in violation of the
29 Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
30 WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in
31 United States, 112
32 commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and
33 WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous administrations and
34 some now being considered by the present administration and from
35 Congress may further violate the Constitution of the
36 NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully resolve:
37 (1) That the State of
HJM 4009 p. 2
1 the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
2 powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government
3 by the Constitution of the
4 (2) That this serve as a Notice and Demand to the federal
5 government to maintain the balance of powers where the Constitution of
6 the United States established it and to cease and desist, effective
7 immediately, any and all mandates that are beyond the scope of its
8 constitutionally delegated powers.
9 BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately
10 transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United
11 States, the President of the
12 House of Representatives, the President of the Senate and the Speaker
13 of the House of Representatives of each state’s legislature of the
14
15
— END —
p. 3 HJM 4009