By Matt Holdridge
This via CNN:
Washington (CNN) — Their message is loud and clear: Big government is out of control; states need to take back their constitutional rights.
A movement has been growing over the past two years of urging states to exert their rights under the 10th Amendment. The Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, states: “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.”
A number of states have passed resolutions that assert their rights. While the resolutions have no legal teeth, they’re intended to carry a message: States’ rights are being trampled on.
The anger behind the so-called ‘Tenther’ movement comes from what advocates see as the federal government’s forcing policies on the states — most notably on health care reform, economic recovery measures and social issues.
But critics of the movement say the resolutions go too far by nullifying or ignoring federal laws.
Read more here.
As I’m sure many of you are aware, Tom Woods has been outspoken regarding the concept of nullification. In fact, Tom will be giving a lecture for C4L next week in DC regarding this topic at CPAC 2010.
As Tom has pointed out, C4L’s Pocket Constitution is the only one to our knowledge that contains the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. Click here to watch Tom Woods explain the history of the resolutions and the implications of nullification in modern times.
I personally believe this is a worthy cause. However, I do see the irony that in one breath the states say they’ve had enough federal involvement in their affairs but in the other they plead for more federal aid. It’s like a critically ill drug user admitting they have a problem while at the same time continuing to pump increasing amounts of narcotics into their veins.
Do you think these 10th Amendment resolutions will amount to something substantial in the end? Or will the states back down when threatened with losing their federal funds?