You’ve got to believe that the surfeit of zombie movies of late is no coincidence.
Senator Jack Goodman (r) prefiled SJR 3, which would go on the ballot if passed by the General Assembly, to assert “sovereignty” for Missouri when it comes to federal law.
FIRST REGULAR SESSION
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 3 [pdf]
96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
INTRODUCED BY SENATOR GOODMAN.Pre-filed December 1, 2010, and ordered printed.
TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.
0132S.01IJOINT RESOLUTION
Submitting to the qualified voters of Missouri, an amendment to article IV of the Constitution of Missouri relating to state sovereignty.
Be it resolved by the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring therein:
That at the next general election to be held in the state of Missouri, on Tuesday next following the first Monday in November, 2012, or at a special election to be called by the governor for that purpose, there is hereby submitted to the qualified voters of this state, for adoption or rejection, the following amendment to article IV of the Constitution of the state of Missouri:
Section A. Article IV, Constitution of Missouri, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 54, to read as follows:
Section 54. 1. The attorney general shall seek appropriate relief on behalf of the state and its officers to preserve and protect the state’s sovereignty when the attorney general determines in his or her discretion that such suit is necessary and proper or when the attorney general is directed to seek such relief by an executive order of the governor, a concurrent resolution of the general assembly, or a petition of the legal voters as provided in subsection 2 of this section that expresses the belief that the federal government has taken steps that require the state or a state officer to enforce a provision of federal law that lies outside Congress’s enumerated powers and intrudes on the sovereignty reserved to the states by the tenth amendment to the United States Constitution.
2. The people may direct the attorney general to seek relief by initiative. Initiative petitions directing the attorney general to seek relief against the federal government shall be signed by eight percent of the legal voters in each of two-thirds of the congressional districts in the state. The total vote for governor at the general election last preceding the filing of such petition shall be used to determine the number of legal voters necessary to sign the petition. In submitting the same to the people, the secretary of state and all other officers shall be governed by general laws. Every such petition shall be filed with the secretary of state not less than six months before the election and shall specify in a clear and concise manner the particular federal action for which the attorney general is directed to seek appropriate relief. Any petition approved under this section shall be passed by a majority of the votes cast thereon.
Ah, nullification.
Batshit crazy republicans (ah, a redundancy) will think this is a good idea as long as there’s a Democrat in the White House. Once that changes they’ll go strangely silent on the matter.
Judicial Supremacy and the Supremacy Clause
January 4, 2006 | Scott Lemieux….Allowing states to selectively nullify federal law has been generally abandoned for good reason, and Baude’s legal theory was thankfully and permanently buried by the Civil War. Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote that “I do not think the United States would come to an end if we lost our power to declare an act of Congress void. I do think the union would be imperiled if we could not make that declaration as to the laws of the several states.” He was right. Somebody has to be able to provide authoritative resolutions to conflicts arising from competing legal interpretations between different levels of government, and the Constitution logically locates the resolution of disputes about federal law in federal institutions.
[emphasis added]
You think that’ll stop delusional tenthers from trying?