Constant Conservative

Whether we are looking at much bluster, or the beginning of states reasserting their powers under the 10 Amendment of the US Constitution is yet to be known. However, for the present, I would like to think that our representatives (and senators) at the state level here in South Dakota are truly concerned with the Federal government getting out of much of our business.

HCR 1013 was a step in the right direction. It states that:

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION,  Reasserting sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over certain powers and serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates.

WHEREAS,  the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads 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.”; and

WHEREAS,  the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more and the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and

WHEREAS,  today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government and many federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

WHEREAS,  the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and

WHEREAS,  any Act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States of America, or Judicial Order by the judicatories of the United States of America which assumes a power not delegated to the government of the United States of America by the Constitution of the United States of America and which serves to diminish the liberty of any of the several states or their citizens constitutes a nullification of the Constitution of the United States of America by the government of the United States of America; and

WHEREAS,  a number of proposals from previous administrations and some now pending from the present administration and from Congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED,  by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-fourth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the State of South Dakota hereby reasserts sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,  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; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this concurrent resolution serve 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.

Sadly, there were a number of people who do not believe that the state of South Dakota is able to govern itself. In the House of Representatives, we have the following 18 who do not believe in states’ rights.

• Blake
• Burg
• Dennert
• Elliott
• Fargen
• Feickert
• Feinstein
• Frerichs
• Hunhoff (Bernie)
• Killer
• Kirschman
• Lucas
• Nygaard
• Schrempp
• Solberg
• Sorenson
• Thompson
• Vanderlinde

In the Senate, we have the following 14 who also do not believe in states’ rights:

• Ahlers
• Bartling
• Bradford
• Dempster
• Hanson (Gary)
• Heidepriem
• Hundstad
• Jerstad
• Kloucek
• Merchant
• Miles
• Nesselhuf
• Peterson
• Turbak Berry

These senators and representatives have done South Dakota (and her people) a grave wrong. At a time when the federal government is expanding fasting than a lottery winner’s circle of close friends, we need state legislators who hold back that tide–and not those who would simply ignore or even approve of the unconstitutional overreaching on the part of the federal government.

If these members of South Dakota’s House and Senate represent you, please let them know that this vote is absolutely the wrong thing for South Dakota.

And for those others not listed here, because they voted “Yea” in sufficient numbers to actually see that the resolution passed both chambers, please thank them for standing up for what is right.