So says John Miller of the WaPo. Mr Miller bases this of course on the misplaced idea that the Supremacy Clause over-rides Article I, section 8 of the Constitution which granted Congress specificenumerated powers. Except people like Mr Miller most likely don’t understand the Supremacy Clause because if they did they would know that federal laws are only supreme if they are “made in pursuance thereof” the Constitution. In plain English, the law must fall within the confines of the Constitution to be supreme. Put another way, as Tom Woods asks in response to another anti-nullification article by Paul Zummo, “does the Supremacy Clause say, ‘This Constitution and laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, along with any old laws we may choose to impose on you, shall be the supreme law of the land?’ That’s not what my copy has.”
The big government types truly believe that the several states gave up all their rights when they ratified the Constitution, completely disregarding the wealth of information from the Ratification Conventions along with the opinions of those both for and against the Constitution in the Federalist and the Anti-Federalist Papers.
These documents show to the contrary; that the states only agreed to such a compact if they had the means to get out if they became oppressed. Many of these men who formed our republic were scared to death that the proposed federal government would become a monarchy or oligarchy and sought to put measures in place to prevent such a thing from happening. Hence the Tenth Amendment and the notion that the states needed to retain their sovereignty in order to keep the federal government in check.
But worry not. As opposition to these ideas by the mainstream continues to come out, it shows that they are afraid that our message has the truth to support it. We have the words of Jefferson and Madison among others, backed up by of modern scholars such as Tom Woods who wrote the quintessential book on the subject, Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century and Kevin Gutzman along with people in the media like Mike Church and Jack Hunter who are on the front lines spreading the message. And let’s not forget the Tenth Amendment Center, an organization who’s sole mission is to promote adherence to the Tenth Amendment, Campaign for Liberty, or the Repeal Amendment that seeks to restore the balance of power between the states and federal government.
We have the truth on our side, all the opponents of states’ rights have are slurs, lies and fear.
