Texas 2009 - 81st Regular

Texas Senate Bill SCR39 Compare Versions

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Old	New	Differences
1	1	By: Hegar S.C.R. No. 39
2	2
3	3
4	4	SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
5	5	WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
6	6	United States reads as follows: "The powers not delegated to the
7	7	United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the
8	8	States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people";
9	9	and
10	10	WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of
11	11	federal power as being that specifically granted by the
12	12	Constitution of the United States and no more; and
13	13	WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of
14	14	the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union
15	15	of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal
16	16	government may not usurp; and
17	17	WHEREAS, Section 4, Article IV, of the Constitution says,
18	18	"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a
19	19	Republican Form of Government," and the Ninth Amendment states that
20	20	"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not
21	21	be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people";
22	22	and
23	23	WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New
24	24	York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144 (1992), and Printz v. United
25	25	States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997), that Congress may not simply
26	26	commandeer the legislative, executive, and regulatory processes of
27	27	the states, and that, to do so, is a violation of the Tenth
28	28	Amendment; and
29	29	WHEREAS, one of our nation's Founders and author of the
30	30	Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, emphasized that the
31	31	states are not "subordinate" to the national government, but rather
32	32	the two are "coordinate departments of one simple and integral
33	33	whole."; and
34	34	WHEREAS, one of the authors of the Federalist Papers,
35	35	Alexander Hamilton, expressed his hope that "the people will always
36	36	take care to preserve the constitutional equilibrium between the
37	37	general and the state governments." And, that, "this balance
38	38	between the national and state governments forms a double security
39	39	to the people."; and
40	40	WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous administrations
41	41	and some now pending from the present administration and from
42	42	Congress threaten to disturb this delicate balance between the
43	43	federal government and the state governments; and
44	44	WHEREAS, Such encroachments by the federal government may
45	45	result in a commandeering of the states' legislative, executive,
46	46	and regulatory processes; and
47	47	WHEREAS, These acts undermine the spirit of the federalist
48	48	system created by our Founders and are in violation of the Tenth
49	49	Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; now, therefore,
50	50	be it
51	51	RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas
52	52	hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the
53	53	Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise
54	54	enumerated and granted to the federal government by the
55	55	Constitution of the United States; and, be it further
56	56	RESOLVED, That this serve as notice and demand to the federal
57	57	government to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates
58	58	that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated
59	59	powers; and, be it further
60	60	RESOLVED, That the power over the freedom of the right to keep
61	61	and bear arms was reserved to the states and therefore, all acts of
62	62	Congress to abridge that right are not law and are void; and, be it
63	63	further
64	64	RESOLVED, That all compulsory federal legislation that
65	65	directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal
66	66	penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation
67	67	or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed; and, be it
68	68	further
69	69	RESOLVED, That the Texas Secretary of State forward official
70	70	copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, to
71	71	the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the
72	72	Senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
73	73	Texas delegation to the Congress with the request that this
74	74	resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
75	75	memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.