A Tradition of Nullification

Around the country, many states have introduced nullification legislation. These measures have usually been titled “Firearms Freedom Act” because they usually deal with the issue of federal firearm registration. Typically, these measures include provisions that guns, accessories, and ammunition manufactured within a state, sold within that state, and never leaves that state is not subject to the Interstate Commerce Clause.

Recently in Oklahoma, four bills were introduced with nearly identical text – House Bill 2884, House Bill 2994, House Bill 3239, and Senate Bill 1685. (Currently, HB3239 is dead apparently due to an open carry amendment being added to it without permission from House leaders.) Last year, Montana and Tennessee passed their Firearms Freedom Act into law. Pennsylvania is considering an amendment to their State Constitution rather than a law.

Nullification, which is what these bills are doing, has a steeped tradition in American history. (However, they may gloss or skip over it in the history books now since they don’t want our children educated on Constitutional rights that they may not agree with.) Thomas Jefferson and James Madison started it with the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts. South Carolina in 1832 nullified the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. During the 1920’s there was quite a push for nullification of federal liquor laws. And recently, the Real ID Act passed by the Bush Administration in 2005 has been effectively nullified by the efforts of 24 states; this is in addition to the 14 states that have nullified federal marijuana laws.

So what exactly is nullification? Nullification is based on the Tenth Amendment and is the state assuming a position that a federal law is unconstitutional and inherently null and void within the boundaries of that state.

Thomas Jefferson probably said it best in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798:

“The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government”

If you look around today, you will find that those words still ring true 212 years later. The United States was founded on the principles of Natural Law which includes the principle of separation of powers. The Constitution clearly spells out the powers of each branch of the federal government and clearly reserves to the States and the People any powers not explicitly granted to the federal government. Through complete and total bastardization of the Interstate Commerce Clause, the federal government has acted repeatedly outside of the bounds of the Constitution.

Hopefully, this is an indicator of the several states becoming united in asserting their Tenth Amendment rights and placing the federal government back in check. Just in 2010, there have been bills introduced which nullify socialized medicine, cap and trade, legal tender laws, abuse of national guard troops, and federal income taxes. (While we’re on that, someone should really add the federal fuel tax to the list... but that’s another post in itself.)

However, don’t expect the federal government to relinquish its stranglehold on the States and the People easily. Remember the speed limit laws? Or the drinking age laws? Uncle Sam offered to refuse to return any federal taxes collected in a state to that state unless they adhered to the federal regulations. When the first Firearms Freedom Act goes through the Supreme Court, don’t expect even the “conservative” Justices to side with the Constitution. But if it does make it through and the Court determines that the states can nullify firearms laws, then you’ll see another wave of federal strong arming in an attempt to force the states to comply with the federal government’s demands.