82R855 JH-D
By: Hegar, Nelson S.C.R. No. 1
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
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 Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of
the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union
of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal
government may not usurp; and
WHEREAS, Section 4, Article IV, of the Constitution says,
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a
Republican Form of Government," and the Ninth Amendment states that
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not
be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people";
and
WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New
York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144 (1992), and Printz v. United
States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997), that Congress may not simply
commandeer the legislative, executive, and regulatory processes of
the states, and that to do so is a violation of the Tenth Amendment;
and
WHEREAS, One of our nation's Founders and author of the
Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, emphasized that the
states are not "subordinate" to the national government, but rather
the two are "coordinate departments of one simple and integral
whole"; and
WHEREAS, One of the authors of the Federalist Papers,
Alexander Hamilton, expressed his hope that "the people will always
take care to preserve the constitutional equilibrium between the
general and the state governments" and that "this balance between
the national and state governments forms a double security to the
people"; and
WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous administrations
and some now pending from the present administration and from
Congress threaten to disturb this delicate balance between the
federal government and the state governments; and
WHEREAS, Such encroachments by the federal government may
result in a commandeering of the states' legislative, executive,
and regulatory processes; and
WHEREAS, These acts undermine the spirit of the federalist
system created by our Founders and are in violation of the Tenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; now, therefore,
be it
RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas
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; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That this serve as notice and demand to the federal
government to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates
that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated
powers; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That the power over the freedom of the right to keep
and bear arms was reserved to the states, and therefore, all acts of
Congress to abridge that right are not law and are void; and, be it
further
RESOLVED, That all compulsory federal legislation that
directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal
penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation
or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed; and, be it
further
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the
Texas delegation to the Congress with the request that this
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.