I am certainly pleased that the Alabama Legislature has passed a resolution affirming the sovereignty of our state under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Alabama now joins many other states which have passed such resolutions as a principled response to unprecedented threats to our liberties by the bloated and ever-expanding federal government.
The principle of states rights known as “federalism,” and contained in the Tenth Amendment, grew from a healthy American fear of abuse of power, particularly power centralized in one person or political body. When the American Colonists became the United States and threw off the bonds of Great Britain in the Declaration of Independence, one of the grievances listed in the Declaration was that the King and Parliament were “declaring themselves invested with Power to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.”
Alabama’s state motto is, “We Dare Defend Our Rights.” Because of repeated injuries and usurpation of our federal government in both Republican and Democrat administrations of recent years, it is altogether fit and proper that the states should take alarm and affirm the Tenth Amendment to voice their opposition to federal abuse of power.
- Alabama: We Dare Defend Our Rights - January 30, 2010