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Federalism and Deliverance
The Nullification Option  

by Scott Rohter - November 2010 

"The greatest threat to our freedom and our future is our own federal government"

“Freedom has more often been lost in small steps by progressive incrementalism, than by cataclysmic events such as violence or war.” –James Madison

“It is the unfortunate truth that liberty is as much in danger from too much government, as it is from too little government.” –James Madison

“In [designing] a government….the great difficulty is this: you must first [empower] the government to control the governed, and then in the very next step, you must oblige it to control itself!” 
- James Madison, 1788 - The Federalist #51

The United States Constitution is a contract between two parties. There are the States on the one hand, and there is the Federal Government on the other hand. It is logical to assume that if one of these parties (i.e. the States) always lets the other party (i.e. the Federal Government) interpret this contract, than the party which is doing all of the interpreting (the Federal Government) is going to have the upper hand after 238 years...

The other party to the contract, (the States) are always going to get the short end of the stick...

That is exactly what has happened in America during the last 238 years as the Federal Courts have continued to interpret and re-interpret the United States Constitution to the advantage and benefit of the United States Government.

The justices on the Federal Courts are nominated by the Federal Government, appointed by the Federal Government, and paid for by the Federal Government... The Federal Courts are no bastion of impartiality between the States and the Federal Government. They are not neutral arbiters between the States and the Feds. The Federal Courts are part of the Federal Government. They are not working on behalf of the States or on behalf of The People. It is necessary for the States which created the Federal Government to begin to restrain the Federal Government. It is time for the States both collectively and individually to re-establish their sovereignty as outlined in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. They need to say NO to any further Federal overreaches and they need to overturn existing Federal overreaches which have been permitted to occur.

The solution to what is wrong with our country is not a Constitutional Convention or a Convention of the States. The solution to what is wrong with America is not to amend the Constitution because there is nothing wrong with the Constitution. The problem does not lie in the Constitution. The problem lies with our elected officials in Washington who don't follow the Constitution and the solution to this problem is State Nullification...

It is painfully obvious that the original thirteen colonies which ratified the Constitution and entered into a mutual agreement to create the Federal Government have been the unwitting victims of a growing Federal conspiracy to usurp their rights and the rights of the other thirty-seven States which entered into this Union thereafter. Now is the time to extricate themselves from excessive over-reaches of a Federal Government which deny their state sovereignty and to re-establish their rightful control over their own respective affairs. It is also time to re-assert their collective will over the Federal Government that they created which has expanded its authority to realms unheard of and undreamed of when the Constitution was written. The States have become subservient to the Federal Government instead of the Federal Government remaining subservient to the Constitution which all parties agreed to abide by.

In a real sense the Federal Government has become more powerful than all of the States combined. Now the States have to re-assert themselves as the sovereign entities they are under the Constitution and re-establish control over their own affairs to the extent that the 9th & 10th Amendments to the Constitution permits, but which the Federal Government does not allow. The States must determine when and where the Federal Government has exceeded it's Constitutional authority and they must act to restore the correct balance of power to our Republic. This is referred to as nullification.

Two centuries after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the Federal Government has become so powerful that it exercises control over our lives in ways that were never anticipated by any of our Nation's Founding Fathers. The Federal Government has grown into an intolerable and irresponsible monster powerful enough to defy the States and the Constitution whose purpose it was to restrain it. Our current Federal Government with its myriad of federal agencies and bureaucracies spending us into oblivion is in itself unconstitutional and the Federal Courts are acting irresponsibly and unconstitutionally by allowing it to continue to do so. This is the crux of the problem.

Instead of following the Constitution, the Federal Government routinely ignores it. Instead of sharing power with the States, the Federal Government abuses its power and authority which it was given. It uses money that rightfully belongs to the people of the several State to control and manipulate the States via the Federal Income Tax, and when it doesn't have enough money it merely prints more out of thin air. That is what is referred to as "monetizing the debt". A monstrous Federal bureaucracy that is out of control declares to the States who created it, “If you don't do what you're told we will not provide you with the money you need to run your own affairs." So the once independent States now come begging to Washington, their cup in their hand where they all line up at the Federal trough for more Federal funds. Who will deliver the States from this monster of their own making? How will they save the Republic from the Federal Government they created?

Editor’s Note:
The struggle between the States and the central government is as old as our republic itself.  It surfaced in George Washington's first administration in his very first cabinet between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.  Hamilton favored a very strong centralized government with a National Bank while Jefferson and James Madison, who is widely considered to be the author of the Constitution preferred a more limited Federal Government which shared power with the States.

"The truth, the political truth, and nothing but the political truth. A journalist has no better friend than the truth." - Scott Rohter
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