I had the privilege of being invited to speak to the Lake Country Defenders of Liberty last night. I believe that last night marked their 1 year anniversary as a group. They were pleasant, aware and very engaged in today’s events. I made a presentation followed by an excellent question and answer session. I’ll recap the main parts of the discussion as they are relevant to us all.

In the first 2 years of this administration we have had 3 Constitutional crises. First would be the president disenfranchising the investors in both GM and Chrysler, forcing a bankruptcy on them under his terms and the government taking over ownership of these companies. Second, we have the health care mandate. Someone who professes to be a constitutional scholar should know that this law is unconstitutional on its base. No matter what clause they decide to use, the government cannot force you to get up off the couch and participate in commerce. Never before in our society has it been necessary that the sovereign citizens of the states that form this great republic be forced to purchase anything as a condition of their citizenship. Third, we have the commander in chief unilaterally order the delivery of hundreds of tomahawk missiles to a sovereign nation that did not order them. He did not consult congress and had no Constitutional authority to order an attack on a sovereign nation. Even being pressed for time to make a flight for his vacation to Rio is not covered by the War Powers Act.

We discussed our frustrations with the federal governments overspending, overtaxing and overreaching. I asked if anyone else had noticed that there were a lot of newly elected representatives that surfed into office last November on a wave of Tea and seem to have ditched their boards on the beach. Marco Rubio has been fairly outspoken in his support of the Libyan incursion. His only problem is that we did not do it earlier. Does he not remember his platform of spending reform? He seems like a sharp guy to me, did he already forget the Oath that he just took to uphold the Constitution?

With the help of Tom Woods, I explained the case of Angel Raich, California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996 and how the federal government once again overstepped their bounds and denied her the only recourse from the unbearable pain she was experiencing. What I felt was an even more important point to stress were the amicus briefs filed by Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. While they were opposed to California’s position concerning medical marijuana, there were more concerned about the federal government once again stomping on states’ rights. California has also had the federal government disregard the will of the people regarding proposition 8. The people voted, they spoke and decided. A federal judge has no business in the matter. It is a matter for the citizens of California. We talked about that for a bit and about other states that have medical marijuana laws. Does it matter to us if California legalizes marijuana or whether it approves or disapproves of gay marriage? Will California break along the fault line and disappear because they take a more liberal stance on some issues? No, we all agreed it was a matter for the citizens of the state to decide and did not have any effect on us at all.

Some in the group felt powerless against the federal government, especially when it comes to judicial intervention. I put forth that it was not the founders intentions that the 9 black robed justices be seen by the country as all knowing oracles or that they are granted some mystical power to decide the constitutionality of every matter. The federal government cannot be allowed a monopoly when it comes to determining the constitutionality of laws that they pass or powers that they grant themselves. If it were intended for the government to pass whatever they wanted under the commerce clause or the general welfare clause, why would the framers of the Constitution have listed the enumerated powers in Article 1 Section 8?

No, the rightful remedy is nullification as Thomas Jefferson said. An unconstitutional law is no law at all and the states are duty bound to interpose on behalf of the sovereign citizens of their state. We discussed the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and the process of nullification itself. Lastly, I related the history of Joshua Glover to the group and the fact that Wisconsin had done more to abolish slavery than other states and that we did in fact have a history of nullification. Thanks to those brave men, Joshua lived out his life as a free man in Canada.

It was a great night and a lively discussion. The Defenders of Liberty are definitely a group that is paying attention and actively engaged in attempting to bring our Constitution back from exile. Voting the bums out has not worked and I hope that I showed them another way to more directly effect change: The Tenth Amendment.

Finally, if any of you Lake Country Defenders of Liberty are out there reading this, I would like to thank you for taking the time to hear me talk and encourage you to continue in your actions and vigilance.

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