[Sosfbay-discuss] My sister forwarded this one to me....

[Tian Harter]

State launches boycott of 'unconstitutional' federal laws
Urges 49 others to join in combating government's 'abuse of authority'

Posted: October 21, 2009
11:50 pm Eastern

By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Tennessee is urging 49 other states to come together and create a "joint 
working group between the states" to combat unconstitutional federal 
legislation and assert state rights.

Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen signed HJR 108, the State Sovereignty 
Resolution on June 23. According to the Tenth Amendment Center, the 
resolution created a committee to form a joint working group between the 
states to enumerate the abuses of authority by the federal government 
and seek repeal of imposed mandates.

State Rep. Susan Lynn recently wrote a letter to the other 49 state 
legislatures, inviting them to join the group and warning that the role 
of the federal government has been "blurred, bent and breached."

"The national government has become a complex system of programs whose 
purposes lie outside of the responsibilities of the enumerated powers 
and of securing our natural rights; programs that benefit some while 
others must pay," Lynn wrote. "Today, the federal government seeks to 
control the salaries of those employed by private business, to change 
the provisions of private of contracts, to nationalize banks, insurers 
and auto manufacturers, and to dictate to every person in the land what 
his or her medical choices will be."

She continued, "Forcing property from employers to provide healthcare, 
legislating what individuals are and are not entitled to, and using the 
labor of some so that others can receive money that they did not earn 
goes far beyond securing natural rights, and the enumerated powers in 
the Constitution."

Lynn said that the people created the federal government to be their 
agent only for certain enumerated purposes.

"The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being 
that which has been delegated by the people to the federal government, 
and also that which is absolutely necessary to advancing those powers 
specifically enumerated in the Constitution of the United States," she 
wrote. "The rest is to be handled by the state governments, or locally, 
by the people themselves."

She noted that the Constitution does not include a congressional power 
to override state laws, nor does it give the judicial branch unlimited 
jurisdiction over all matters. Attempts to include such provisions in 
the Constitution were rejected by the Founding Fathers.

"With this in mind," she wrote, "any federal attempt to legislate beyond 
the Constitutional limits of Congress' authority is a usurpation of 
state sovereignty – and unconstitutional. Governments and political 
leaders are best held accountable to the will of the people when 
government is local. The people of a state know what is best for them; 
authorities, potentially thousands of miles away, governing their lives 
is opposed to the very notion of freedom."

In one example of Tennessee's battle against federal government 
policies, federal gun regulators wrote to gun dealers around Tennessee 
in July, dropping the hammer on a state law that exempts weapons made, 
sold and used inside the state from interstate regulations.

The letter was distributed to holders of Federal Firearms Licenses.

In it, Carson W. Carroll, the assistant director of the Bureau of 
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told dealers the Tennessee 
Firearms Freedom Act, adopted this year, "purports to exempt personal 
firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition manufactured in the 
state, and which remain in the state, from most federal firearms laws 
and regulations."

The exemption is not right, the federal agency letter contends.

More recently, the state of Montana filed a lawsuit against U.S. 
Attorney General Eric Holder seeking a court order that the federal 
government stay out of the way of Montana's management of its own firearms.

As WND reported, the action was filed by the Second Amendment Foundation 
and the Montana Shooting Sports Association in U.S. District Court in 
Missoula, Mont., to validate the principles and terms of the Montana 
Firearms Freedom Act, which took effect Oct. 3.

The law provides guns and ammo made, sold and used in Montana would not 
require any federal forms; silencers made and sold in Montana would be 
fully legal and not registered; and there would be no firearm 
registration, serial numbers, criminal records check, waiting periods or 
paperwork required.

The idea is spreading quickly. Similar plans have been introduced in 
many other states.

Montana's plan is called "An Act exempting from federal regulation under 
the Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States a firearm, 
a firearm accessory, or ammunition manufactured and retained in Montana."

The law cites the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that 
guarantees to the states and their people all powers not granted to the 
federal government elsewhere in the Constitution and reserves to the 
state and people of Montana certain powers as they were understood at 
the time it was admitted to statehood in 1889.

"The guaranty of those powers is a matter of contract between the state 
and people of Montana and the United States as of the time that the 
compact with the United States was agreed upon and adopted by Montana 
and the United States in 1889," the law states.

The lead attorney for the plaintiffs' litigation team is Quentin Rhodes 
of the Missoula firm of Sullivan, Tabaracci & Rhoades, PC. The team 
includes other attorneys working in Montana, New York, Florida, Arizona 
and Washington.

"We're happy to join this lawsuit," said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the 
SAF, "because we believe this issue should be decided by the courts.

"We feel very strongly that the federal government has gone way too far 
in attempting to regulate a lot of activity that occurs only in-state," 
added MSSA President Gary Marbut. "The Montana Legislature and governor 
agreed with us by enacting the MFFA. We welcome the support of many 
other states that are stepping up to the plate with their own firearms 
freedom acts."





JB Williams
JBWilliams09 at gmail.com
www.JB-Williams.com

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