Tenth Amendment Remembered

...from Tenth Amendment Center As a candidate, Pres. Trump called the war in Afghanistan “futile” and pledged to pull the U.S. out of the quagmire. But in a recent speech, the president announced a plan committed to extending and deepening U.S. military involvement in that country. Trump said he was now convinced “a hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum for terrorists, including ISIS and Al Qaeda.” He said he planned to commit more troops to the region and to put pressure on Pakistan to destroy terrorist sanctuaries in that country. “My original instinct was to pull out, and historically I like following my instincts. But all my life, I’ve heard that decisions are much different when you sit behind the desk in the Oval Office.” We could spend a lot of time dissecting the Trump’s proposed policy and its efficacy. But there exists much bigger problem with the whole thing. Constitutionally, it isn’t the president’s decision. His personal opinion on Afghanistan shou...

...from Tenth Amendment Center Seven years ago this month, I starting doing work for the Tenth Amendment Center. It was at the dawn of the Tea Party movement. During a rally in my hometown, it kind of hit me that change would require more than standing in a park in the rain holding a sign. I’ll be honest, I was pretty much still a typical “conservative Republican” at this point – albeit with a libertarian streak. I listened to a lot of Rush Limbaugh and thought Barack Obama was the biggest problem. But I’d always had this intuitive sense that decentralization of power was the key to liberty. And I knew that the federal government was supposed to be limited – per the Tenth Amendment. When I first came across the Tenth Amendment Center, I thought these guys might be a little crazy. But they seemed to be offering some practical solutions, and they were looking for people to get involved. This was during the days when the TAC had a state chapter model, so I filled out a form to be the...

...from Tenth Amendment Center A few weeks ago, I launched the Activism 101 Podcast to chronicle boots on the ground local grassroots activism in real time. How often have you seen something going on in your community and thought, “Somebody needs to do something?” Maybe you even thought, “I should do something.” But then it hits you. “I have no idea what to do.” So, you go on with life and the problem never gets addressed. I was recently confronted with an issue in my own neighborhood, and I went through that exact thought process. But I realized I couldn’t stop at, “I have no idea what to do.” So, I decided was just going to have to figure it out. This podcast will tell the story -the ups and the downs – the good, the bad and the ugly. The fun part is I have no idea how the story will end. I’m recording the episodes as I go. Hopefully, when all is said and done, we will have developed a solid blueprint highlighting practical steps you can take to do activism in your own communi...

...from Tenth Amendment Center The following post is excerpted from the script for Nullify: Season 1.  Watch all the videos from this series at this link  – and  Become a member here  to support the TAC. To stop federal acts, James Madison recommended a “refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union.” Over 170 years of supreme court precedent supports this strategy too. Known as the “anti-commandeering doctrine,” in four major cases dating back to 1842, the Supreme Court has held that the federal government cannot require states to use personnel or resources to help the federal government carry out its acts or regulatory programs. In the 1842 Prigg case, Justice Joseph Story wrote that the federal government could not force states to implement or carry out the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. He said that it was a federal law, and the federal government ultimately had to enforce it. In the 1992 New York case, Sandra Day O’Connor wrote that the feds can...

...from Tenth Amendment Center Nullification is dead. At least that’s the opinion of Duke University Law School professor Ernest Young . But despite this emphatic epitaph, Young sees great potential for nullification as a tool to limit federal power. In a paper published in the Case Western Reserve Law Review , Young makes a strong case for nullification, highlighting state efforts that have effectively nullified federal marijuana prohibition. So, how can this be? How can nullification be simultaneously dead and buried, yet still a serve as a powerful tool to check federal overreach? The answer lies in the two distinct definitions of nullification. While “legal” nullification as laid out by John C. Calhoun may be dead, Young argues that nullification through non-cooperation, as recommended by James Madison in Federalist #46, remains a powerful means to confront overreaching federal authority. He even cites the Tenth Amendment Center’s definition of nullification – “any act or s...

...from Tenth Amendment Center TAC memberships  help us produce more educational tools like this. Members can download this video and read the full transcript here . Some people believe that we can’t use sound money because there’s “not enough gold.” But they couldn’t be more wrong. FOLLOW TAC: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TenthAmendmentCenter RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/tacdailydigest Twitter: http://twitter.com/tenthamendment Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tenthamendmentcenter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tenthamendmentcenter/ Email Newsletter: http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/register Become a Member: http://tenthamendmentcenter.com/members/ Michael Boldin August 17, 2017 at 12:02PM

...from Tenth Amendment Center CONCORD , N.H. (Aug. 16, 2017) – Yesterday, a law expanding New Hampshire’s medical marijuana program went into effect. This will build on the already existing nullification of federal marijuana laws in the Live Free or Die state. Rep. Eric Schleien (R-Hillsborough) sponsored House Bill 157 ( HB157 ) to add chronic pain to the list of qualifying conditions for patients to receive medical marijuana. HB157 passed the House on Mar. 8 by a 301-47 vote, and then passed the Senate on Apr. 20 by an 18-5 vote. It was signed into law by Gov. John Sununu on Jun. 16, and it officially went into effect on Aug. 15. “There’s been a lot of research on this which shows that doctors prescribe fewer opioids in states where medical cannabis is an option for pain, and those states have lower fatal overdose rates,” Rep. Schleien said in a written statement defending his reform. The New Hampshire legislature passed a law legalizing medical marijuana in 2013. The Departme...