Now For Some Truly Great News, From Oklahoma Of All Places

If this is for real, it represents a major step forward in the struggle to save American civilization from the usurpers in Washington, D.C.: the Oklahoma legislature has declared that the Tumor is trampling the Constitution by exercising unenumerated powers, and therefore Oklahoma reclaims its sovereign right to do all things reserved to it under the Tenth Amendment. Here is the operative text:

A Joint Resolution claiming sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over certain powers; serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates; and directing distribution.

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

WHEREAS, 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 2008, the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government; and

WHEREAS, 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, 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 AND THE SENATE OF THE 2ND SESSION OF THE 51ST OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE:

THAT the State of Oklahoma hereby claims 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.

THAT this 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.

THAT a copy of this resolution be distributed to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate of each state's legislature of the United States of America, and each member of the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation.

I could hardly have said it better myself. This is a shot across the bow of the oligarchs who have wrenched our government from its constitutional moorings and set it to sail over a waterfall. If they persist in destroying the legacy our ancestors bequeathed us, then we can and should assert our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness on our own.

One detail is worth special analysis: the citation to New York v. United States, in which the Supreme Court held that the Tumor cannot command State legislatures to take a particular course of action (a holding paralleled in Printz v. United States, where the Supreme Court held that the Tumor cannot commandeer the executive organs of the States). The curveball that Oklahoma must be wary of is that the Supreme Court has also stated, both in New York and in other decisions, that the Tumor may bribe the States into obedience with taxpayer money, such as when the States willingly raised the drinking age to 21 for fear of losing federal highway funds. If Oklahoma is serious about what it is doing, it must be prepared to reject the allure of federal funds and declare that such bribery is equally unconstitutional, since the federal spending power cannot be divorced from the federal enumerated powers (as James Madison himself noted).