Friday, July 3, 2009

Op/Ed: Florida Asserting Sovereignty?

"The founders and the people who ratified the Constitution wanted the most important decisions, the most difficult ones, handled close to home. So, whether you're a supporter of medical marijuana in California, or gun rights in Tennessee, or gay marriage in Maine, or opposed to Real ID in Missouri, you're a supporter of these principles that the founders so wisely passed on to us."

By Bill Thompson c/o Ocala.com 

Some Florida lawmakers are seeking to hit the reset button on the U.S. Constitution.

On Wednesday nine House Republicans, including two who represent Marion County, added Florida to a long list of state legislatures that are resurrecting a states' rights push to re-establish the balance between the federal government and the governed.

These initiatives against federal encroachment, now filed in more than three dozen states, are rooted in the 10th Amendment, which fences in federal power by mandating that the states and the people control public policy unless the Constitution specifically denies them such jurisdiction, or delegates such authority to the federal government.

The Florida lawmakers in their paperwork, known as a memorial, argue that "many federal laws are in direct violation of the Tenth Amendment," whose limits on Washington "established the foundational principle that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states."

"And yet," they add, "currently the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government." :: MORE::

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