Tenth Amendment Remembered

...from Tenth Amendment Center LANSING , Mich. (Sept. 30, 2020) – Last week, the Michigan House gave final approval to a bill that would create a process to expunge certain marijuana convictions. Passage of the bill would allow people to clear their records and take another small step toward nullifying federal marijuana prohibition in effect. Rep. Luke Meerman (R) introduced House Bill 4982 ( HB4982 ) last year with a large bipartisan coalition of cosponsors. Under the proposed law, people with misdemeanor marijuana convictions would be able to petition the court to have the conviction set aside. In effect, the expungement would clear all public record of the conviction. Law enforcement would still maintain a non-public record. Under the law, people would not have to disclose the conviction on job applications or other forms. This would eliminate the life-long struggle for people with criminal charges on their record face when applying for jobs, housing and other things. On Sept.

...from Tenth Amendment Center Since 9/11, the Feds have been hard at work trying to create a national surveillance network ‘for our safety.’ And with  Wi-Fiber Technology  they might have finally succeeded. A new  study  by  Safety.com revealed that CCTV cameras record each and every American at least 238 every week, or more than 12,000 times every year! Approximately 6 years ago the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) created a  national license plate reader program . The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency also wanted to create a license plate database, but it was allegedly canceled due to public outcry. “Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of a plan by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to develop a national license-plate tracking system after privacy advocates raised concern about the initiative.”  An important tidbit, that has been mostly ignored by the mass media, is law enforcement’s involvement in helping create

...from Tenth Amendment Center Here’s my analysis of the first Trump-Biden presidential debate. Most of the stuff that Trump and Biden "debated" about isn't even delegated to the federal government in the #constitution . @mmaharrey10th pic.twitter.com/qb8RJxP4qw — TenthAmendmentCenter (@TenthAmendment) September 30, 2020 It was a train wreck And almost nothing they talked about constitutionally has anything to do with the presidency. In fact, most of the issues they talked about aren’t even in the purview of the federal government. The founding generation never imaging the U.S. would eventually be ruled by an elected king. For Further Reading Executive Power: Who Made Presidents and Governors Kings? The American President: A Modern King Top 3 Ways Presidents Violate the Constitution The post My Debate Analysis first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center Blog . Mike Maharrey September 30, 2020 at 04:15PM

...from Tenth Amendment Center The latest fight over the next Supreme Court justice and the abject hysteria on display from both sides of the political aisle reveal yet another flaw in the incorporation doctrine. It has vested Supreme Court justices with nearly unlimited power and elevated them to the status of political demi-gods. The incorporation doctrine is the dubious Supreme Court interpretation of the 14th Amendment that applies the Bill of Rights to the states. A lot of people believe that the Bill of Rights always applied to state and local governments. This is simply not true. The Bill of Rights was never intended to bind the actions of state governments.  In a nutshell, the Supreme Court invented the incorporation doctrine through the 14th Amendment. It relies on a dubious legal principle called “substantive due process,” invented out of thin air by the court more than 50 years after the ratification of the amendment. In theory, the incorporation sounds like a good id

...from Tenth Amendment Center “A free government never degenerated into tyranny all at once, it is the work of years.” It took many years to build it, and it’s going to take many more to turn things around. Path to Liberty: September 30, 2020 Subscribe: iTunes | Spotify | Podbean | Google | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS SHOW LINKS: JOIN TAC Show Archives Subscribe and Review on iTunes State of the Nullification Movement Report James Otis Jr (27 Apr 1767) John Dickinson – Cortes – Letter IX From a Farmer in Pennsylvania Jefferson Talons – Notes on Virginia – first published 1785 Franklin to Jane Mecom (1 Nov 1773) Richard Henry Lee – Federal Farmer IV (12 Oct 1787) John Admas to Abigail Adams (7 Jul 1775) James Iredell (29 Jul 1788) Theophilus Parsons (23 Jan 1788) John Hancock ALTERNATE VIDEO SOURCES Watch on LBRY Watch on Facebook Watch on Bitchute Watch on Twitch.tv Watch on Brighteon Watch on Periscope Watch on BitTube Watch on DLive FOLLOW and SUPPOR

...from Tenth Amendment Center The looming fight over the next Supreme Court justice reveals yet another problem with the dubious incorporation doctrine. No sane system would invest this much power in 9 politically-appointed lawyers. But that's exactly what the incorporation doctrine has given us. @mmaharrey10th #supremecourt #constitution #10thAmendment #decentralize #scotus pic.twitter.com/HjCdLY0cXE — TenthAmendmentCenter (@TenthAmendment) September 28, 2020 The incorporation doctrine sounds good in theory. Supporters believe the Court will protect your liberty from state and local tyranny. But in effect, it has centralized even more authority at the federal level and given nine politically connected lawyers far too much power. For Further Reading The Incorporation Doctrine Broke the Constitutional System The Incorporation Doctrine and the Bill of Rights Retired Supreme Court Justice Shows Danger of Trusting Federal Courts with Incorporation The post Ju

...from Tenth Amendment Center The United States Constitution’s Article 2, Sec. 2, cl. 2, provides that the president of the United States “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States.” President Donald Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett as U.S. Supreme Court justice who will replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Barrett currently serves as United States Circuit judge of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 7th Circuit serves the Midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. It is now the Senate’s job to decide whether to confirm Barrett’s appointment as an associate justice on the Supreme Court. In thinking about the Senate’s criteria for making their decision, we might ask what is the role of a U.S. Supreme Court justice? A reasonable answer is to recognize that our Constitution represents our rules of t

...from Tenth Amendment Center From Kalvis Golde at SCOTUSblog:  House Democrats to introduce new bill for Supreme Court term limits . With the debate over Supreme Court reform taking center stage in the 2020 election after the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, three members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday will introduce a bill to establish term limits for Supreme Court justices. Democrats Ro Khanna (Calif.), Don Beyer (Va.) and Joe Kennedy III (Mass.) unveiled the bill, the  Supreme Court Term Limits and Regular Appointments Act , on Friday. If passed, the act would institute regular appointments to the Supreme Court every two years, with new justices serving for nonrenewable 18-year terms. After 18 years, appointees would become “senior justices” able to temporarily rejoin the court in the event of an unexpected vacancy. Although the current eight justices would be exempted, the two-year appointment cycle would take effect immediately, without waiting for them

...from Tenth Amendment Center 12 quotes from four Supreme Court Justices nominated by Pres. George Washington – on property rights, federal power, resistance and more – show just how much things have changed. And not for the better. Path to Liberty: September 28, 2020 Subscribe: iTunes | Spotify | Podbean | Google | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSS SHOW LINKS: JOIN TAC Show Archives Subscribe and Review on iTunes State of the Nullification Movement Report John Jay Address to the people of Great Britain (5 Sept 1774) Federalist #4 Georgia v. Brailsford (1794) James Wilson State House Speech (6 Oct 1787) Convention (16 June 1787) 28 Oct 1787 1 Dec 1787 Oliver Ellsworth 7 Jan 1788 Same – coerce James Iredell Factions (30 Jul 1788) Usurp and resist Bare-faced usurpation Forgotten Founder: James Iredell ALTERNATE VIDEO SOURCES Watch on LBRY Watch on Facebook Watch on Bitchute Watch on Twitch.tv Watch on Brighteon Watch on Periscope Watch on BitTube Watch

...from Tenth Amendment Center Earlier this summer, I wrote , “The Federal Reserve serves as the engine that makes all of the U.S. government’s unconstitutional spending possible. Without the Fed, the entire system would collapse.” The numbers bear this out. The  2020 budget deficit surged passed $3 trillion in August even as the US government continues to borrow and spend at a torrid pace. Since March, the federal government has added $3.3 trillion to the national debt. That is on top of the $1.4 trillion in debt the Trump administration piled on in the 12 months through February 2020 – before the pandemic. So, who is buying all of this government debt? There are a lot of buyers out there, but when you boil it all down, the U.S. government wouldn’t be able to maintain this level of borrowing and spending without the backstop of the Federal Reserve. The Fed was the biggest buyer of U.S. Treasuries in July, adding $89 billion worth of bonds to its balance sheet, according to th

...from Tenth Amendment Center We’re beginning to see nullification efforts expand in an effort to free “magic mushrooms.” Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic compound found in certain mushrooms. A number of studies have shown it to be effective in the treatment of a number of conditions, including depression, PTSD, chronic pain and addiction. Despite the promising health benefits, the federal government maintains complete prohibition on psilocybin. But we are starting to see the same strategy used to effectively nullify unconstitutional marijuana prohibition used to free magic mushrooms. Without state and local cooperation, the federal government simply cannot maintain its unconstitutional prohibition. @mmaharrey10th pic.twitter.com/gyEEZ2Gl65 — TenthAmendmentCenter (@TenthAmendment) September 24, 2020 For Further Reading Oakland Becomes Second City to Decriminalize “Magic Mushrooms” Despite Federal Prohibition Status Report: Nullify Federal Marijuana Prohibition The p

...from Tenth Amendment Center Centralization of power in Washington D.C. is the greatest threat to liberty. I recently appeared on the Kate Dalley show to talk about government overreach in the era of COVID-19. Kate noted that a lot of the most egregious government restrictions have come at the state and local level. Why not empower the federal government to keep the states in check? That sounds plausible on the surface, but as I explain, if you empower the feds to limit state restrictions in the midst of a pandemic, you also empower them to impose restrictions. And there is no guarantee that a president favorable to limiting restrictions will remain in the White House. During the interview, I also talk about about what the Federal Reserve is doing to our money, and the longterm ramifications of all the federal borrowing and spending. The post Interview: Government Power in the COVID-19 Era first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center Blog . Mike Maharrey September 26, 2020

...from Tenth Amendment Center In the Boston Globe, Laurence Tribe (Harvard)  makes an originalist case that the Vice President cannot break ties on appointments votes.  It’s an interesting issue but I am not persuaded. He begins: While the vice president has the power to cast a tiebreaking vote to pass a bill, the Constitution does not give him the power to break ties when it comes to  the Senate’s “Advice and Consent” role  in approving presidential appointments to the Supreme Court. You don’t have to take my word for it. Alexander Hamilton said the same thing way back in 1788, in  Federalist No. 69 : “In the national government, if the Senate should be divided, no appointment could be made.” … Well, I don’t always take Alexander Hamilton’s word for things either, although Hamilton is persuasive evidence of original meaning when he gives a persuasive account.  Federalist 69, however, doesn’t contain any supporting reasoning on this point, so it’s unclear why Hamilton thought

...from Tenth Amendment Center A four-year-old video from Wi-Fiber Technology does not even come close to telling the whole story of how law enforcement and Fusion Centers can use this product to secretly monitor Americans.  At approximately the 1 minute mark of the above video, Wi-Fiber offers a glimpse into how government agencies use their product to “improve public safety and emergency response in real-time.” A look at Wi-Fiber’s website reveals next to nothing about how their “Self-Forming, Modular, Autonomous, Real-Time, Turn-Key” (S.M.A.R.T.) product is used. Which opens up a ton of questions. Readers are left guessing as to how and why law enforcement would want to use S.M.A.R.T. until you start to read between the lines. You see, S.M.A.R.T. is really just an acronym for smart cities and everything they entail. Wi-Fiber uses Smart Mesh, Edge Computing, Inter-Operability, Visualization, Cloud and G.A.R.I.2.  The G.A.R.I.2 PowerPoint Presentation  reveals exactly why pol

...from Tenth Amendment Center RICHMOND , Va. (Sept. 25, 2020) – Yesterday, a Virginia Senate committee passed a bill that would put limits on state and local law enforcement agencies’ ability to acquire certain military equipment from federal programs. Del. Dan Helmer (D-Fairfax Station) introduced House Bill 5049 ( HB5049 ) on Aug. 17. The legislation would prohibit a state or local law enforcement agency from acquiring, purchasing, or accepting on any terms the following military equipment. (i) tracked armored vehicles (ii) weaponized aircraft, vessels, and vehicles of any kind (iii) firearms of .50-caliber or higher (iv) ammunition of .50-caliber or higher (v) grenade launchers (vi) bayonets On Sept. 24, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed HB5049 by an 11-5 vote . Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the measure 9-4 . The legislation applies both to the well-known 1033 program, along with any other military surplus program operated by the federal gov