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Friday, January 29, 2010

The States vs the big State

I had no idea so many other states had introduced legislation asserting their 10th Amendment rights. I’ve had the Texas resolution (HCR 50) hanging in my office here for months waiting for it to pass.

The Tenth Amendment Center is tracking all of these which have become more important as the Federal government attempts to overstep its bounds – as in the current health care bills on capital hill.

These non-binding resolutions, often called “state sovereignty resolutions” do no carry the force of law. Instead, they are intended to be a statement of the legislature of the state. They play an important role, however.

Sometimes I wonder how hard it would be and whether it would make a large difference to go back to the state legislatures directly appointing the Senate representatives. The Senate was intended as the representation of the States while the House would represent the people. If the Senate was beholden to the state, would they be passing bills usurping the state authority?

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