http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/32461
Instructions from Hamilton, Madison, & Jefferson
Why States Must Nullify Unconstitutional Acts of Congress
By Publius Huldah Monday, January 24, 2011
During August 2010, the People of The State of Missouri approved Proposition C
and nullified key parts of “obamacare”. As a matter of constitutional
principle, may the People of the States lawfully do this? Or must they submit
to every law made by Congress whether it is constitutional or not? Are federal
judges the final authority?
I will prove that the States have the Right and the Duty to nullify
unconstitutional acts of Congress. The only real question is whether Americans
have the Will to reclaim our Constitutional Republic & the Rule of Law, or
whether they will submit to the rulership of men who “don’t care” what the
Constitution says, and who see obamacare as a way “to control the people”.
Congress’ Powers are Enumerated
1. The U.S. Constitution, which created the federal government, permits
Congress to make laws only on those few objects which are listed in the
Constitution. The objects on which Congress has authority to make laws
applicable throughout our Country are itemized at Art. I, Sec. 8, clauses 1-16
(and in a few of the Amendments).
Since the Federalist Papers are the most authoritative commentary on the true
meaning of the Constitution, 1 let us see what those Papers say about the
extent of Congress’ legislative powers. In Federalist No. 83 (7th para),
Alexander Hamilton says:
The plan of the convention declares that the power of Congress ...shall extend
to certain enumerated cases. This specification of particulars evidently
excludes all pretension to a general legislative authority, because an
affirmative grant of special powers would be absurd, as well as useless, if a
general authority was intended. [boldface mine]
In Federalist No. 39 (3rd para from end), James Madison says:
...the proposed government cannot be deemed a national one; since its
jurisdiction extends to certain enumerated objects only, and leaves to the
several States a residuary and inviolable sovereignty over all other
objects...[emphasis added]
Our Framers were emphatic that ours is a Constitution of enumerated powers
only. In Federalist No. 45 (9th para), Madison says:
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are
few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are
numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external
objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the
power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved
to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary
course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the
people...[emphasis mine] 3
Do you see? If the Constitution doesn’t delegate a power to Congress by
listing it in the Constitution, Congress doesn’t have that power. It is
reserved by the States or the People.
Congress Usurps Power when it makes Laws outside its Enumerated Powers - and
such pretended Laws are VOID NOT VALID
.
2. Our Framers understood that civil governments seek to expand power at the
expense of the People. And when they do so, their acts are VOID and INVALID!
Thus, in Federalist No. 33 (next to last para), Hamilton says:
...But it will not follow ...that acts of the large society [the federal
government] which are NOT PURSUANT to its constitutional powers, but which are
invasions of the residuary authorities of the smaller societies [the States],
will become the supreme law of the land. These will be merely acts of
usurpation, and will deserve to be treated as such... [caps are Hamilton’s;
other emphasis mine]
In the last paragraph of No. 33, Hamilton says a law made by Congress which is
not authorized by the Constitution,
...would not be the supreme law of the land, but a usurpation of power not
granted by the Constitution... [emphasis mine]
In Federalist No. 78 (10th para), Hamilton says:
...every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission
under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary
to the Constitution, can be valid. To deny this, would be to affirm, that the
deputy is greater than his principal; that the servant is above his master;
that the representatives of the people are superior to the people themselves;
that men acting by virtue of powers, may do not only what their powers do not
authorize, but what they forbid. [emphasis mine]
Nothing in Art. I, Sec. 8, or elsewhere in the Constitution, authorizes
Congress to pass obamacare! “Medical care” is not an enumerated power.
Obamacare is unconstitutional as outside the scope of the legislative powers
granted to Congress. 4
Furthermore, the Tenth Amendment forbids Congress to pass obamacare: When a
power is not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution, that
power is reserved to the States or to the People. Only the States or the
People have power over medical care!
So! Congress passed obamacare without any constitutional authority to do so,
and in violation of the Tenth Amendment. Hence, as Hamilton shows us,
obamacare is “void” and not “valid”. It is an act “of usurpation, and will
deserve to be treated as such.”
Hamilton, Madison & Thomas Jefferson show us that Nullification is the Answer.
3. Hamilton shows in Federalist No. 28 (7th para) that if the federal
government invades the rights of the People, they can use the State government
as the instrument of redress:
...in a confederacy the people ... may be said to be ... the masters of their
own fate. Power being almost always the rival of power, the general [federal]
government will ... stand ready to check the usurpations of the state
governments, and these will have the same disposition towards the general
government. The people, by throwing themselves into either scale, will
infallibly make it preponderate. If their rights are invaded by either, they
can make use of the other as the instrument of redress.... [emphasis added]
So! When the People of the State of Missouri approved Proposition C nullifying
obamacare, they properly made use of their State government as “the instrument
of redress” against the usurpations of Congress & the Executive Branch.
And since State officials and many Citizens have taken the Oath to support the
U.S. Constitution (Art. VI, clause 2), it is their SWORN DUTY to nullify - to
refuse to obey - unconstitutional and pretended federal “laws”, such as
obamacare.
Nullification by States of unconstitutional federal laws is not new. Our
beloved Thomas Jefferson (Author of the Declaration of Independence) & James
Madison (Father of the U.S. Constitution) show us precisely what States are
honor bound to do when Congress makes an unconstitutional law. During 1798, in
response to Congress’ passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Kentucky and
Virginia Legislatures passed Resolutions declaring those Acts unconstitutional
as outside the enumerated powers granted to Congress, and as in violation of
the Tenth Amendment. In these Resolutions, Kentucky and Virginia resolved not
to abide by the federal acts. Jefferson wrote The Kentucky Resolutions, and
Madison wrote The Virginia Resolution. 5
The Kentucky & Virginia Resolutions are masterpieces of constitutional
analysis. Study them! States may use them as models for their own Resolutions
nullifying the myriad of unconstitutional “laws” which have spewed forth from
Congress in recent decades.
The Framers did NOT say States should file Lawsuits and let Federal Judges
decide!
4. Think: Why would the States, which formed a Federation for the limited
purposes enumerated in Art. I, Sec. 8; ask one branch of the federal government
(judiciary) to opine on whether a “law” approved by the two other branches
(legislative & executive), exceeds the enumerated powers of Congress and
encroaches on the reserved powers of the States and the People (10th
Amendment)? All three branches of the federal government have been unified
against The Constitution, the States, and the People for a very long time! Why
would States put themselves in the position of supplicants to a Court which has
already shown itself to be contemptuous of the Constitution, and of the States’
and The Peoples’ reserved powers?
And further: Can we not see for ourselves that obamacare is outside the scope
of the Legislative Powers granted to Congress in the Constitution, and that it
violates the Tenth Amendment? Our Framers certainly did not advocate running
to federal judges to let them decide such issues! No, our Framers were men who
had guts & backbone and understood the Constitution! So they nullified
unconstitutional acts of Congress. 6
Will the American People pass the Test?
5. Will the States and the People surrender to the likes of former DNC Chairman
Howard Dean who “doesn’t care” if the stuff passed by Congress is
unconstitutional? To Democrat Congressman John Dingle who sees obamacare as a
means “to control the people”? Or will The People and the States man up and
defend our Constitution?
We have instructions from the Author of the Declaration of Independence, the
Father of the Constitution, and the Author of most of the Federalist Papers.
They explain what our Constitution really means, and tell us what we need to do
when the federal government usurps powers. Listen to them! They are the
highest Authority on the true meaning of our Constitution.
And do not be swept away by rage and lust for revenge. Do not become the
murderous, unthinking red-capped mob of the French Revolution.
Let us pray that our eyes be opened, that we listen to the words of wisdom from
our Framers, that our spines be stiffened, and that we work for a peaceful
political resolution of the dreadful problems facing us. PH
Endnotes:
1 At a meeting attended by Thomas Jefferson & James Madison of the Board of
Visitors of the University of Virginia on March 4, 1825, the following
resolution selecting texts for the Law school, was passed:
...on the distinctive principles of the government of our own state, and of
that of the US. the best guides are to be found in 1. the Declaration of
Independance, as the fundamental act of union of these states. 2. the book
known by the title of `The Federalist’, being an authority to which appeal is
habitually made by all, and rarely declined or denied by any as evidence of the
general opinion of those who framed, and of those who accepted the Constitution
of the US. on questions as to it’s genuine meaning.... (page 83) [emphasis
added]
2 See also Federalist No. 14 (8th para) “...the general [federal] government
is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws. Its
jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects…”
Federalist No. 27 (last para) “...It merits particular attention in this place,
that the laws of the Confederacy [the federal government], as to the ENUMERATED
and LEGITIMATE objects of its jurisdiction, will become the SUPREME LAW of the
land…Thus the legislatures, courts, and magistrates, of the respective members,
will be incorporated into the operations of the national government AS FAR AS
ITS JUST AND CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY EXTENDS…” [caps in original]
3 Medicare, Medicaid, social security, etc., are also unconstitutional as
outside the scope of the legislative powers granted to Congress. And the
programs can’t work! As more & more people seek to live at other peoples’
expense, the system eventually collapses. That collapse is upon us.
4 Jefferson calls it “nullification”; Madison calls it “interposition”. In
“interposition”, the State “interposes” - steps in between - an usurping
federal government and The People. (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary.) The result is
really the same.
5 Furthermore, the supreme Court is NOT the ultimate authority on the meaning
of the Constitution! Hamilton says federal judges may be impeached for
usurpations (Federalist No. 81, 8th para); the People are “the natural
guardians of the Constitution” as against federal judges “embarked in a
conspiracy with the legislature”; and the People are to become “enlightened
enough to distinguish between a legal exercise and an illegal usurpation of
authority.”(Federalist No.16, next to last para). Federalist No. 49, 3rd para,
says that breaches of our Constitution can be corrected by “...the people
themselves, who, as the grantors of the commission [The Constitution], can
alone declare its true meaning, and enforce its observance”.
The federal courts have refused to “enforce” the Constitution. Congress has
failed to impeach & remove usurping federal judges - it has failed to be the
“check” on the federal courts. Therefore, WE must enforce the Constitution by
means of nullification. WE must be the final “check” on the courts. Study &
Learn so that you are qualified to do this. PH
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"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of
opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of
increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all
its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” - Harry S.
Truman
"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations,
or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and
evidence." - John Adams
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually
come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State
can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences
of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its
powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and
thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one
fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a
few points and repeat them over and over.”
“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.”
— Paul Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933
to 1945
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless
minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." - Samuel Adams
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by
evil men." - Plato
"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not." -
Thomas Jefferson
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