Founded in 1991, the Republican Liberty Caucus works to advance the principles of limited government, free markets and individual liberty within the Republican Party.

State Sovereignty Movement Quietly Growing

By Dave Nalle - February 5, 2009 at 6:07 PM
Filed under Arizona , Issues , Missouri , Oklahoma , South Carolina , State Sovereignty


You may not have heard much about it, but there’s a quiet movement afoot to reassert state sovereignty and stop the uncontrolled expansion of federal government power. Almost half of the state legislatures are currently considering or have representatives preparing to introduce resolutions to reassert the principles of the 9th and 10th Amendments and the idea that federal power is strictly limited to specific areas detailed in the Constitution and that all other governmental authority rests with the states.

In the version of this bill being considered in Washington state, they appeal to the authority of James Madison in The Federalist who wrote:

“”The powers delegated to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, [such] as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people.”

The Founders believed in a balance between state and federal power. The state sovereignty movement clearly arises from the belief that the balance of power has tilted too far and for too long in the direction of the federal government and that it’s time to restore that lose balance.

The emergence of this movement is a hopeful sign of the people asserting their rights and the rights of the states and finally crying “enough” to runaway government. With the threat of increasingly out of control federal spending, some of these sovereignty bills may stand a fair chance of passage in the coming year.

There’s a lot of excitement about these bills, but there are also a lot of misconceptions, with people claiming that some states have already declared sovereignty and that the movement is much farther along than it really is.

Contrary to popular rumor, none of the states has actually enacted a sovereignty law yet. Some have come close. Oklahoma’s bill passed their lower house overwhelmingly but stalled in the Senate last fall and is being held over for consideration in the new year.

Contrary to the fantasies of some extremists, these sovereignty bills are not the first step towards secession or splitting up the union, nor are they an effort to block collection of the income tax, appealing though that might be. For the most part, they are not so much political statements of independence as they are expressions of fiscal authority directed specifically at the growing cost of unfunded mandates being placed upon the states by the federal government.

Despite the movement picking up steam as he came to office, the target of these bills is not President Obama, but rather the Democrat-dominated Congress whose plans for massive bailouts and expanded social programs are likely to come at an enormous cost to the states.

It has become increasingly common for Congress to pass legislation which dictates policy to the states, but which comes without adequate federal funding and the expectation that the cost of these programs, which the states had no real say in approving, will come out of state budgets. This has been a long-term problem with Medicaid and Medicare, but the unfunded mandate which stirred up the most ire recently was the No Child Left Behind program. More concern has been raised with the recent reauthorization and expansion of the SCHIP program which has a history of requiring more expenditure than is provided for in the federal budget.

The text of the bill proposed in Arizona makes the clearest statement of the intent to block unfunded mandates:

“That this Resolution serves as notice and demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.”

and

“That all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed.”

What this movement is most similar to is the Nullification Crisis of 1832 where the State of South Carolina asserted that it had the right to nullify the authority of federal laws within its borders. In this case the states are not asserting anything as broad as the Doctrine of Nullification, but are merely reasserting the limits which the 10th Amendment places on federal authority, specifically as it applies to spending, the idea being that they don’t have to pay for federal mandates if their legislators choose not to.

Not all of the bills fall within these limitations. Missouri’s bill actually goes somewhat further and does assert the right of the state to negate federal law, specifically in reference to the proposed federal Freedom of Choice Act, which some fear would bar states from passing laws regulating abortion. New Hampshire’s bill actually goes so far as to lay out a very strongly worded variant of the Doctrine of Nullification which specifies acts by the federal government (many of them currently being proposed in Congress) which would effectively negate the Constitution and the authority of the federal government within their state. Hawaii’s proposed sovereignty bill comes very close to being an actual act of secession, based on native tribal rights.

As things stand right now, it looks like Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Washington will all definitely consider sovereignty bills this year. They may be joined by Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, and Pennsylvania — where legislators have pledged to introduce similar bills.

Twenty states standing up to the federal government and demanding a return to constitutional principles is a great start, but it remains to be seen whether legislatures and governors are brave enough or angry enough to follow through.

As the Obama administration and the Democrat Congress push for more expansion of federal power and spending that may help provide the motivation needed for the sovereignty movement to take off.

The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the RLC.
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  • Cary Heller

    This is a great movement, the Washington D.C government needs to understand that “we the People” have had enoudgh!

  • Corie

    I’m excited about this! The 10th Amendment is just as valid as any other within the Bill of Rights …. and I’m sick and tired of hearing otherwise! I’ve been going to school in Boston, and I actually had a political science teacher tell me that the 10th Amendment doesn’t matter. Awesome. If you say that, doesn’t it mean you’re creating a precedent that could lead to someone saying the 1st Amendment doesn’t matter? You can just ignore what the Constitution says – it doesn’t work that way. I really hope that this movement picks up steam in the face of growing federal tyranny that will only keep expanding in the current climate.

  • Rob Hillman

    Thanks, Dave, for posting this valuable Blog item. Last week, the Missouri RLC Chair testified in support of Cynthia Davis’ HR 212 – Missouri Sovereignty and anti-FOCA Resolution. Missouri representatives of Campaign for Liberty, the Missouri Eagle Forum, and the Missouri Liberty Restoration Project also traveled to the State Capital in support of Mrs. Davis’ resolution. Following that, the Missouri RLC Chair offered documented support in absentia to the Missouri Legislature for Representative Jim Guest’s HCR13 – Missouri Sovereignty Resolution.

    Question: What’s the next step to gain traction on this issue?

  • Jack Vier

    It is time that the 535 in DC understand that the citizens of this great country have had enough of their attempts to take our country and run it into the ground.
    If the states pass this sovereinty bills watch for the government to try to use extortion, withold federal funds for projects to get the states to step back in line. If the states stand up and say we can and will not agree to extortion then the government will step back in line with the constitution as it was written.

  • Nevan

    This is baby step number one. Let us keep going until we abolish the illegal despotic Federal Reserve banking system. The spirits of our forefathers are demanding it.

  • http://bearcreekledger.com/2009/02/14/states-rights/ Bear Creek Ledger » State’s Rights

    [...] Republican Liberty Caucus also talks about reclamation efforts by states: You may not have heard much about it, but there’s [...]

  • mark

    incredibly wishy washy (typically republican) coverage of this issue. it is patently false to say this movement has nothing to do with cessation, that is the specific remedy in the Montana bill for violation of 2a. How else will states get actions rather than words? there must be remedies for violations like states witholding tax $$ from feds or the ultimate remedy……CESSATION.

  • http://RepLibertyCaucus Paul Marshall

    I am a high school teacher. I teach Civics and American history. I spend a good deal of time helping the students understand the 9th and 10th amendments to the Constitution. If my students clearly understand these amendments why can’t the federal governments and the many states in the Union. ANSWER POWER AND MONEY. I will join effort to restore America to the priciples of the Constitution.

    Thanks Paul

  • JW

    For too long the federal government has run roughshod over the will of the average working people who pay the bills in this country. Taxation without representation I say. The latest “porkulus bill” is just another fine example. As a Texan and as an American I don’t really care for paying millions to finance a study of the salt marsh mouse in Nancy Pelosi’s district or any of the other hundreds of insane pork projects these idiots can dream up. Particularly when our country is bankrupt. Precisely the kind of thing that got us in this mess.

    The states need to reclaim the power granted to them by the constitution which was been slowly abdicated to the federal government. You may wonder how or why state sovereignty can effect the federal government. Asserting sovereignty seems to be the most likely peaceful way the people could potentially rein in Washington and regain the power and liberty that has been stolen from them. If the federal government refuses to abide by the constitution, then the states in turn have the right to secede. Now I am not saying this will happen but these are the steps. If states assert sovereignty, it could be the first step towards limiting the powers of the federal government and allow us to return to the concept of limited federal government our founding fathers envisioned.

    “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
    –John F. Kennedy

    Send a letter like this to your state representatives

  • GIGI

    If this movement grows, and the feds try to act in an unconstitutonal response, just walk away from them. They cannot run their system without key personnel. They are ready for violence and are not to be engaged on massive scale in such a way.

  • Kevin

    It’s about time the states take back our freedoms from the tyrany of the federal government. One by one they have eroded our freedoms to the point that we don’t even know what is legal or illegal.

  • Tyrone

    Repealing the 17th amendment and going back to Article 1 section 3 would go a long way in states regaining their sovereignty. State senators who wanted to retain their jobs wouldn’t saddle their state with unfunded mandates from the federal government. Those senators would be quickly recalled.

  • http://firestorm david

    talk is cheap and actions speak louder then words i think its time for a cleaning of house the states need to band together in the people intrests and mandate a cease on federal income tax completely put a stop to the tyranny and then round up all of the people responsible for this nightmare of an empire and a disgrace of a country and simply teach them that for their treason of hyjacking our good name that the ultimate price will be paid.

  • Kenny

    Although I dream us of returning to the 1790 Constitutional government, I know that is not reasonable to ask that they give up that much power over our life’s and thus return that much liberty to us to people.

    I can only pray that something will come of this, our government was never meant to be this intrusive!

    To be frank I don’t think there really is any other way to go about this, given the historic patter establish by FDR’s new deal dropping the replacement rate from 50% to less than 10% almost executively filtering out all those who believe in small government (thus states rights) while retaining those willing to uses governments new power to effetely buy reelection.(big government)

    It’s simply not likely that we can ever elect a congress that will return power to the state and be able later simply take it back again. Either we focused on electing State legislators that take it back by force therefore denying Congress the ability to take it back or there can be no balance between the powers and with no balance there can be any Constitution retained.
    We did a horrible thing we passed the 17th amendment and effetely deprived States from the practical ability to protect themselves and thought that process of competition protect the U.S. Constitution.
    Since that time the words of Thomas Jefferson continue to ring ever more true:

    “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”- Thomas Jefferson, letter to E. Carrington, May 27, 1788

    We don’t have anything to win this fight with but the States, and we never will with out the States. Only the states have the natural power driven interest to protect there rights, and thus our rights thou them.

    Of course if we don’t do this, our country will continue to be ever more centralized until it is a Unitarian State, while at the same time our natural size dictated diversity will continue to drive politics to be evermore high profile. There can be no mistake over the long run so long as we suppress each others rights thou “democracy” we are headed for a 2nd Civil War, Dictatorship, or Collapse.

  • Jon

    My family and I are trying to spread the word here in Missouri, urging people to contact their respective reps. I hope it catches fire here and enough pressure will be placed on the State government that they will pass this bill. We cannot let one state stand alone, we must be of a united voice. If you live in a state with pending resolutions; email, write, call, and copy. Spread the word. This has not to do with politics, but everything to do with liberty. Make Paul Revre proud!

  • http://www.theartdeptchronicles.blogspot.com Aaron

    Several states have joined the movement towards less federal control and regulation. The increasing expansion of federal power is so blatant and real that legislation has been drafted by various states citing the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights as follows, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

    http://www.theartdeptchronicles.blogspot.com

  • http://www.backupamerica.org Betsy Ross

    This is all well and good, expect that this state sovereignty is unnecessary, and another one of those “shut up” moves by the state legislatures rather than doing what they need to do in order to curtail the federal government and act as “representatives” of the people rather than “agents” of the feds. In Article IV, Section 4 it already asserts the “sovereignty” of the states by “guaranteeing to each state a Republican form of government,” and the Tenth Amendment already reinforces that any and all powers not given to the federal government rest with the states and the people.

    This is redundancy, and will serve no purpose unless and until the states actually start suing the federal government for “lack of performance” when they don’t provide the revenue or resources for the enumerated powers, or start filing “injunctions” when they overstep their powers and start forcing the state’s and people to cowtow to their unconstitutional edicts.

    This is nothing more than a move in “word” that will not be enforced by “deed,” unless more energy is put into confronting the state legislators also on the “negligence” in doing their proscribed functions when the feds are either out of line, or themselves negligent in their duties.

    Nothing more than more bureaucracy and looking like they are doing something, when actually doing nothing at all.

  • http://AOL.Com Robert Davis (Bear River, WY)

    Our government is out of control leading to tyranny and socialism. State soverighty and state rights must bring a balance of power back to america. If we lose, we all will suffer the lost of our nation to un control, probly being led by Obama-democrates and other power such as Hitler-Stalin, Lenin did to there country bring it to slavery. Americans fight for freedom for family and nation. Veterans know the price for freedom,it is lives they have sacrificed in the past and now again if need to do save america and americans need to stand up to fight for this. What has happen to our elected officals that will not uphold the laws of america? Are they desertors, or cowards to not to defend america. Have dignity you elected officals. You know what I mean. Wyoming cares about it’s citizens rights.

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