New Hampshire Warns Obama: “Establish Martial Law and We’ll Secede”

Numerous States Issuing Declarations of Sovereignty



Scott Ritsema
CIVICS NEWS.com
February 4, 2009

The federal government has usurped power over nearly every area of life in America. But now the states are striking back. As the economic crisis moves forward (and with it, the authoritarian government that created the crisis to begin with), sovereignty movements have quickly arisen and have made tremendous strides in Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Washington, Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Missouri. Each of these state legislatures has passed or is preparing to pass a declaration of sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment. State legislatures are standing up and telling the federal government that it has gone too far. Not surprisingly, the mainstream media are not reporting on this trend.

The New Hampshire sovereignty resolution is perhaps the most striking and radical. It states that if the federal government establishes “martial law…within one of the States...without the consent of the legislature of that State,” that this would be, “a nullification of the Constitution.” The legislature of New Hampshire is apparently aware that martial law could be on the way, and they are warning the federal government in no uncertain terms that the federal government will not establish martial law in their state. The resolution even names “executive orders” as possible examples of unconstitutional power that will not be tolerated by the state of New Hampshire.

In fact, the New Hampshire resolution states that any act by the federal government that, “assumes a power not delegated to the government of United States of America by the Constitution...and which serves to diminish the liberty of any of the several States or their citizens shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution.”

Any federal action that diminishes our liberty will be considered a nullification of the Constitution? You read that correctly. The New Hampshire resolution goes on to explain the consequences of such federal intrusions on the liberty of the states or the citizens. If the feds diminish our liberty, “All powers previously delegated to the United States of America by the Constitution for the United States shall revert to the several States individually.” That means secession in so many words. In reality, though, it's a simple recognition on the part of New Hampshire, that under certain circumstances, the federal government becomes illegitimate, and all it takes is for the states to point that out and to refuse to be a part of a fraudulent non-existent "union."

The Washington legislature has followed in the footsteps of the trail-blazing Oklahoma legislature, which last year passed its own sovereignty resolution. HJM 4009 of the state of Washington, entitled, “Claiming state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment” was introduced on the 30th of January. The bold legislature of Washington, “respectfully resolves that the State of Washington 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.”

The resolution goes on to “serve as a Notice and Demand to the federal government to maintain the balance of powers where the Constitution of the United States established it and to cease and desist, effective immediately, any and all mandates that are beyond the scope of its constitutionally delegated powers.”

The resolutions of Michigan, Missouri, and Arizona include similar language.

Montana's resolution includes language that could nullify federal gun regulations that attempt to dictate how the state of Montana deals with firearms that have not been transported across state lines. Montana's House Bill 246 is entitled, "AN ACT EXEMPTING FROM FEDERAL REGULATION UNDER THE COMMERCE CLAUSE OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES A FIREARM, A FIREARM ACCESSORY, OR AMMUNITION MANUFACTURED AND RETAINED IN MONTANA."

[UPDATE 2/11/09: Mississippi lawmakers have passed a bill to protect the state’s residents during martial law. On the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi website, Phil Bryant announces the passage of SB 2036. The legislation “restricts the power of a peace officer to confiscate firearms and ammunitions in an emergency or during a time of martial law,” according to the website.]

All of these resolutions are worth reading, just to gain some insight into what America’s federal system is supposed to look like. These legislatures have done a superb job arguing for limited federal government and federalism, as intended by the founding fathers.

The problem is that journalists and opinion-makers in America do not understand the nature of America’s federal system. Simply put, federalism is a system of government where powers are shared between the federal and state governments, with the bulk of powers being retained by the states, thereby strictly limiting the federal government’s power. America’s federal system was born in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention, and this convention was a delegation of sovereign states seeking to form a more perfect union.

The delegates of the sovereign states wrote (and the states subsequently ratified) the U.S. Constitution. In doing this, the states gave to a newly-created federal government certain, specified powers. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution enumerates the exhaustive list of these federal government powers.[1] In other words, if it’s not listed there, the power does not exist, regardless of what fantastic “implied” or “inherent” powers are invented by government lawyers. According to Article I, Section 8, acts of Congress are only permitted if they are “necessary” for carrying into execution one of the powers listed in that Section. Acts of Congress are only the supreme law of the land if they are “written in pursuance of the Constitution,”[2] or in other words, if they fall within the scope of powers granted to Congress in Article I, Section 8.

Just in case federal politicians didn’t get the point in the clear language of the Constitution, the Tenth Amendment was immediately ratified by the sovereign states as the capstone of the Bill of Rights. The Tenth Amendment emphatically reminded the federal government that all powers not specifically delegated to the federal government by the states in the Constitution are retained by the states or the people of the states.[3]

So, to sum up, the Constitution says that the state governments retain sovereignty over most matters, and the federal government is given sovereignty only over those legislative areas where the states have specifically delegated authority to the federal government (this is also called “dual sovereignty”).

Over time, however, the federal government usurped powers not delegated to it in Article I, Section 8. And states have, more often than not, submitted to these unconstitutional expansions of federal power over the people. Whether it’s the war on drugs, Wall Street bail-outs, the police state, federal control over education, or the welfare state…we are living in an ever more authoritarian society brought to us by this hijacked federal government.

It is exactly these principles of federalism that the state legislatures are re-discovering at an astounding rate. Not only are these states discovering their own constitutional authority, but they are beginning to assert that authority in a bold and confrontational fashion.

And these state sovereignty resolutions tell only part of the story of the weakening of the federal government. In recent years, states and cities have declared the Patriot Act null and void, the Lakota Nation has declared independence from the U.S. by withdrawing from its treaties with the federal government, and major secession movements have arisen in Hawaii (Hawaii-nation.org), New Hampshire (Free State Project), Vermont (Second Vermont Republic), Alaska (Alaskan Independence Party), Texas (Republic of Texas) and elsewhere.

This data, among other information, certainly have been taken into account by political analysts, such as the Russian Igor Panarin, doctor of political sciences and professor of the Russian Diplomatic Academy Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who actually predict the break-up of the United States.

Secession and dissolution of the federal government is not the goal, but it will become the inevitable result if the federal government continues its authoritarian march. States must take the responsibility to protect their citizens from an oppressive federal government. This is a tradition that dates all the way back to the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. These two statesmen refused to allow the Federalist Party to take away the free speech rights of the people under the tyrannical Alien and Sedition Acts. In moving toward nullification of these acts, Jefferson's and Madison's "Principles of '98" underscore the importance of state governments as bulwarks against federal government tyranny.

The states that are following in the footsteps of the political giants, Jefferson and Madison, have a proud tradition of state sovereignty to rely upon. And it is a tradition that needs to be restored if any limitations on federal government power are to be introduced and enforced.



[1] Article 1, Section 8 includes the following--and only the following--powers: "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and Post Roads; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations; To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."

[2] This is from the so-called "Supremacy Clause" of the Constitution, which states that 1) The Constitution, 2) Treaties, and 3) Federal laws that are "in pursuance of the Constitution" are all the "supreme law of the land." Only federal acts that are constitutional are the supreme law of the land.

[3] The Tenth Amendment states: "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."