82R2359 CBE-F
By: Patrick, et al. S.C.R. No. 14
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, Each member of the legislature has sworn a solemn
oath to defend our national union and takes great pride in being a
citizen of the United States of America, where citizens have the
right to petition their government for redress of grievances; and
WHEREAS, All Texans have benefited from this state's
participation in the unique experiment in democracy that began on a
field in Lexington, Massachusetts, and eventually became known as
the United States of America; and
WHEREAS, Countless Texans have served in the U.S. armed
forces, alongside the brave sons and daughters of our sister
states, and many of them gave the last full measure of devotion by
offering their lives to preserve the union; and
WHEREAS, At the same time, millions of Texans assemble in
churches, synagogues, schools, arenas, athletic fields, and homes
every day to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
America and the one nation, indivisible, for which that flag
stands; and
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 2011, the states are demonstrably treated
as agents of the federal government; and
WHEREAS, Many federal laws are directly in violation of the
Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; 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 that 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), that the Congress of the
United States may not simply commandeer the legislative and
regulatory processes of the states; and
WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous
administrations, from the present administration, and from
Congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States;
now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 82nd Legislature of the State of Texas
reaffirm the pride of all Texans in both our one and indivisible
national union and in our one and indivisible state and the common
heritage of both; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That sovereignty be claimed 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, as our agent, to cease and desist from mandates that are
beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers,
effective immediately; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That all compulsory federal legislation not
necessary to ensure rights guaranteed the people under the
Constitution of the United States 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 president of the senate and the speaker of the house of
representatives of the United States Congress, and to all the
members of the Texas delegation to Congress with the request that
this resolution be entered in the Congressional Record as a
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.