Bill Text: FL S0096 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Exercise of Federal Power [SPSC]
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 14-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-04-30 - Died on Calendar [S0096 Detail]
Download: Florida-2010-S0096-Introduced.html
Florida Senate - 2010 SM 96 By Senator Baker 20-00087A-10 201096__ 1 Senate Memorial 2 A memorial to the Congress of the United States, 3 urging Congress to honor the provisions of the 4 Constitution of the United States and United States 5 Supreme Court case law which limit the scope and 6 exercise of federal power. 7 8 WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the 9 United States proclaims: “The powers not delegated to the United 10 States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, 11 are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” and 12 WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment defines the scope of federal 13 power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of 14 the United States and no more, and 15 WHEREAS, the limitation of power contained in the Tenth 16 Amendment established the foundational principle that the 17 Federal Government was created by the states specifically to be 18 an agent of the states, and yet currently the states are 19 demonstrably treated as agents of the Federal Government, and 20 WHEREAS, many federal laws are in direct violation of the 21 Tenth Amendment, and 22 WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment ensures that we, the people of 23 the United States of America and each sovereign state in the 24 Union of States, now have, and have always had, rights the 25 Federal Government may not usurp, and 26 WHEREAS, Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution of the 27 United States begins: “The United States shall guarantee to 28 every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,” and 29 the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States 30 declares: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain 31 rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others 32 retained by the people,” and 33 WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court ruled in New York 34 v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress does not 35 have the authority to simply commandeer the states’ legislative 36 processes by compelling the states to enact and enforce federal 37 regulatory programs, and 38 WHEREAS, a number of proposals from previous 39 administrations and some proposals now pending from the present 40 administration and from Congress may further violate the 41 Constitution of the United States, NOW, THEREFORE, 42 43 Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 44 45 That the Legislature claims sovereignty under the Tenth 46 Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all 47 powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the Federal 48 Government by the Constitution of the United States. 49 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this memorial serves as a 50 notice and a demand to the Federal Government, as our agent, to 51 cease and desist, effective immediately, from issuing mandates 52 that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated 53 powers. 54 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all compulsory federal 55 legislation that directs states to comply under threat of civil 56 or criminal penalties or sanctions or requires states to pass 57 legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed. 58 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be 59 dispatched to the President of the United States, to the 60 President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the 61 United States House of Representatives, to the presiding 62 officers of each state legislature of the United States, and to 63 each member of the Florida delegation to the United States 64 Congress.
