[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 27 (Wednesday, February 15, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H1188-H1189]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 CALIFORNIA'S MARCH TO THE EXTREME LEFT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, one of the most troubling aspects of 
California's lurch to the left are the rise of two doctrines unknown in 
this country since the last gasp of the Southern Confederacy.
  The first is the doctrine of nullification, the notion that States 
may defy Federal laws that their leaders simply don't like. The most 
outspoken advocate of this doctrine was John C. Calhoun, who, in 
referencing our Nation's most-revered document, the Declaration of 
Independence, observed that our Nation had been founded on--his words--
``self-evident lies.''
  The doctrine of nullification has been revived in the sanctuary 
cities movement, and has now reared its head as State legislation. Our 
Constitution clearly gives Congress the sole prerogative to make 
immigration law, and it commands the President to faithfully execute 
these laws. Our President is now doing so. Yet, California's 
legislature is actively considering a bill that would assert an 
independent power to defy them. And this is not just happening in 
California.

[[Page H1189]]

  Mr. Speaker, States ought to be jealous guardians of their organic 
powers and the prerogatives against unwanted encroachments by the 
Federal Government. But the Supremacy Clause binds the States to our 
Federal laws. This is the very essence of Constitutional Federalism in 
Article VI:
  ``This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be 
made in Pursuance thereof; and of all Treaties made, or which shall be 
made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme 
Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, 
any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary 
notwithstanding.''
  If a State, in rightfully guarding its powers, believes that a 
Federal law unconstitutionally infringes on those powers, the 
Constitution provides that the courts shall resolve such disputes. But 
asserting the power to nullify a Federal law, a law that is clearly 
within the enumerated powers of the Congress and clearly under the 
Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, that crosses a very bright line 
that no State has breached since the first State seceded in 1861.
  Which brings us to the second, even more disturbing development in 
California's march to the extreme left. There is no single act which 
more ultimately and categorically rejects our Constitution, our 
country, and all that they stand for, than a proposal to secede from 
the Union that has preserved our liberties for nearly two and a half 
centuries. It is logically impossible to support secession and, yet, 
maintain loyalty to the Union from which you propose to secede.
  Secession is the ultimate act of disloyalty today, no less than 
during the days of Confederacy. Yet, in California, a formal secession 
movement is now circulating petitions for signature to place exactly 
such a proposal on the ballot.
  It should come as no surprise that one of its leading proponents is 
an American expatriate now living in Russia who declared he ``could no 
longer live under an American flag.'' It should not even come as a 
surprise that the movement is cheered on by California's increasingly 
radical left.
  But what came as a stunning surprise is that 32 percent of 
Californians support this measure, according to a recent poll. Let me 
repeat that. One in three Californians, according to this poll, want to 
repudiate our Federal Union and its Constitution.
  We can only hope that the polling is wrong, or that the disaffected 
Californians who answered the poll in this fashion did so with reckless 
abandon that calm reflection will cure. But it is impossible to avoid 
the implication that so many people in my afflicted State hold so 
little loyalty to our country that they would support a measure that 
willfully rends it asunder.
  These movements, nullification and secession, cross from lawful 
dissent into lawless rebellion. In these turbulent times, our greatest 
strengths are our rule of law, our constitutional institutions, and the 
loyalty of Americans to their priceless legacy of freedom and justice 
and the Union that preserves them.
  Every person who takes the oath of office under our Constitution 
swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution. These modern 
resurrections of the long-buried doctrines of nullification and 
secession strike at the heart of our Constitution. These movements of 
the left would undermine the very foundation of our American 
civilization. They ought to be condemned in the strongest possible 
terms and opposed by every American of goodwill who remains loyal to 
our free government.

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