[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 17272-17273]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was 
referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-145. A resolution adopted by the Senate of the 
     Legislature of the State of Alabama relative to claiming 
     sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of 
     the United States over certain powers; to the Committee on 
     the Judiciary.

                     Senate Joint Resolution No. 27

       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, Federalism is the constitutional division of 
     powers between the national and state governments and is 
     widely regarded as one of America's most valuable 
     contributions to political science; and
       Whereas, James Madison, ``the Father of the Constitution,'' 
     said, ``The powers delegated to the federal government are 
     few and defined. Those which are to remain in the state 
     governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be 
     exercised principally on external objects, [such] as war, 
     peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. The powers reserved 
     to the several states will extend to all the objects which, 
     in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, 
     liberties, and properties of the people.''; and
       Whereas, 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. The one is the domestic, the other the 
     foreign branch of the same government.''; and
       Whereas, Alexander Hamilton expressed his hope that ``the 
     people will always take care to preserve the constitutional 
     equilibrium between the general and the state governments.'' 
     He believed that ``this balance between the national and 
     state governments forms a double security to the people. If 
     one [government] encroaches on their rights, they will find a 
     powerful protection in the other. Indeed, they will both be 
     prevented from overpassing their constitutional limits by 
     [the] certain rivalship which will ever subsist between 
     them.''; 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 2009, 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 the 
     federal government may not usurp; and

[[Page 17273]]

       Whereas, Article IV, Section 4, United States Constitution, 
     says in part, ``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, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress 
     may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory 
     processes of the states; and
       Whereas, a number of proposals from previous 
     administrations and some now pending from the present 
     administration and from Congress may further violate the 
     Constitution of the United States: Now therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Legislature of Alabama, both Houses thereof 
     concurring, That the State of Alabama 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; be it further
       Resolved, That this resolution serves as notice and demand 
     to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, 
     effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of 
     these constitutionally delegated powers; be it further
       Resolved,  That all compulsory federal legislation that 
     directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal 
     penalties or sanctions or requires states to pass legislation 
     or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed; be it 
     further
       Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be forwarded to 
     the President of the United States, the President of the 
     United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House 
     of Representatives, the Speaker of the House and the 
     President of the Senate of each state's legislature, and the 
     entire delegation of the Alabama members of the U.S. 
     Congress.

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