Enforce the Constitution!
by Peter Rykowski, Research Associate and Bulletin Editor
With the beginning of 2023, state legislatures in all 50 states will soon convene. It is imperative that they enforce the Constitution by nullifying unconstitutional federal laws, regulations, and court rulings. Please actively work this year to inform your legislators about nullification and pressure them to take bold action.
The Biden administration — as with previous presidential administrations — continues to serially violate the Constitution when issuing new orders and regulations. Meanwhile, Congress regularly violates Article I, Section 8’s limitations on its power, and although the Supreme Court is more conservative than in previous years, it continues to issue erroneous opinions. The TNA reprint “Federalism Is the Best Step” gives an overview of how far the federal government has exceeded its constitutional limitations.
State legislators — along with local officials — have a key role in enforcing the Constitution and reining in federal usurpations. In fact, they are duty-bound to enforce the Constitution, having taken an oath, as required under Article VI, “to support this Constitution.” Additionally, for nullification to work, legislators and other officials must have courage and boldness to stand up to the federal government, along with the judiciary, media, big business, and others.
Nullification works. Even in the past 15 years, multiple examples exist of states and localities successfully pushing back against federal usurpations. For example, after Congress passed the Real ID Act in 2005, 28 states eventually announced their refusal to comply with the law, forcing the federal government to delay its implementation. Although many of these states since acquiesced — illustrating the necessity of having courage — the federal government remains unable to begin enforcing the law. On December 6, 2022, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would — once again — delay enforcement to 2025, 20 years after the law’s enactment.
Please make nullification a priority; to achieve it, we recommend taking the following actions within the next month:
- Have your chapter hold at least one “legislative day.” Go to your state Capitol and meet with your and other state legislators, informing them about nullification and how, specifically, they can exercise it.
- To enhance your effectiveness, distribute our model legislation and materials to legislators and their staff. You can find these at https://gojt.us/kf11.
- Also contact your legislators outside of your chapter’s legislative days. You can easily do this using our legislative alert at https://gojt.us/k88a; please also share it with others outside your chapter. We will create alerts for specific state nullification bills as they’re introduced; you can monitor https://gojt.us/iib9 for updates.
The Constitution, as already written, is all we need to rein in government. Let’s make sure our legislators enforce it.