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Tag Archives | Kentucky Resolutions

Do States Need Permission to Enforce their Rights?

By on February 12, 2010 in Nullification, State Sovereignty 3

The Tenth Amendment Center shared this WSJ Blog on Facebook recently.

It was a pretty short piece that may be summed up in one paragraph.

On its face, it certainly sounds like an amendment that’s worth being mindful of (which one isn’t?). Thing is, however, that any new application or enforcement of the 10th amendment is going to require some new, perhaps forward-thinking litigation, and a Supreme Court that decides it’s high time to breathe new life into the largely moribund amendment.

This leads the reader to conclude that those who believe that our Federal Government is limited, must wait for a minimum of four Supreme Court Justices to come to the same conclusion, and a case for it to be applied. Many of us have begun to look at history for ourselves, and see how the founders would handle it.

For example, Thomas Jefferson in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE

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States Can’t Nullify, Because I Said So!

By on February 7, 2010 in History, Nullification, The Opposition 4

Illustration: Truth and LieFunny to watch the establishment’s reaction to the reappearance of the idea of state nullification of unconstitutional federal laws. This isn’t allowed, of course — the right of Ivy Leaguers to impose their theories on the country shall not be infringed.

The extremely conventional Sanford Levinson trots out all the old arguments. My book on this subject, slated for mid-June release, answers all of them many times over. But especially dishonest is Levinson’s by-the-books argument that Virginia and Kentucky found no support for their arguments in 1798.

What he leaves out, of course, is that the vast bulk of the states that protested the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions expressly affirmed, in their very replies to those states, their own support of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which they considered perfectly constitutional! The fact that a bunch of states that were dead wrong objected to Virginia and Kentucky is supposed to make us rethink nullification?

And within 10-15 years, many of these states, too, were speaking of the right of state interposition. In 1820 the Ohio legislature passed a resolution indicating its support for the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, whose principles “have been recognized and adopted by a majority of the American people.”

Much, much more can be said against Levinson. But even the tiny bit I’ve said here, at least a portion of which you’d think an honest person might acknowledge, is absent from his article. You may hesitate to believe me — I mean, an establishment historian leaving out the relevant facts? — but it’s true.

NOTE: Cross-Posted from the LewRockwell.com Blog

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