Bill Text: FL S0422 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Mobilization of the National Guard

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Failed) 2022-03-14 - Died in Military and Veterans Affairs, Space, and Domestic Security [S0422 Detail]

Download: Florida-2022-S0422-Introduced.html

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       Florida Senate - 2022                                     SB 422
       
       
        
       By Senator Pizzo
       
       
       
       
       
       38-00602-22                                            2022422__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to mobilization of the National Guard;
    3         creating s. 250.475, F.S.; providing a short title;
    4         defining terms; prohibiting release of the Florida
    5         National Guard or any member thereof from this state
    6         into active duty combat without a declaration of war
    7         or other official action by the United States
    8         Congress; requiring the Governor to take all necessary
    9         actions to comply with such prohibition; providing an
   10         effective date.
   11  
   12         WHEREAS, Article I, Section 8 of the United States
   13  Constitution vests in the United States Congress the exclusive
   14  power of war, and
   15         WHEREAS, in spite of the clear language of the United
   16  States Constitution vesting the power of war exclusively in the
   17  United States Congress, the United States executive branch has
   18  unconstitutionally assumed that power while the United States
   19  Congress has abdicated its constitutional duty, and
   20         WHEREAS, although the United States Congress has not
   21  officially declared war in over 70 years, the United States has
   22  during that time gone to war repeatedly at the direction of the
   23  executive branch, and
   24         WHEREAS, when such unconstitutional actions are taken by
   25  the Federal Government, it is the proper role of the states to
   26  take action to remedy such situations, as stated in the Virginia
   27  and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, and
   28         WHEREAS, founding father and first president George
   29  Washington wrote, “The Constitution vests the power of declaring
   30  war in Congress; therefore, no offensive expedition of
   31  importance can be undertaken until after they shall have
   32  deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure,” and
   33         WHEREAS, the Father of the Constitution, James Madison,
   34  wrote, “The Constitution supposes, what the History of all
   35  Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of
   36  power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has
   37  accordingly with studied care vested the question of war to the
   38  Legislature,” and
   39         WHEREAS, the author of the Declaration of Independence,
   40  Thomas Jefferson, wrote, “We have already given in example one
   41  effectual check to the dog of war by transferring the power of
   42  letting him loose from the Executive to the Legislative
   43  body...,” and, “Considering that Congress alone is
   44  constitutionally invested with the power of changing our
   45  condition from peace to war, I have thought it my duty to await
   46  their authority for using force in any degree which could be
   47  avoided,” and
   48         WHEREAS, another founding father and defender of the United
   49  States Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, wrote, “’The Congress
   50  shall have the power to declare war’; the plain meaning of which
   51  is, that it is the peculiar and exclusive duty of Congress, when
   52  the nation is at peace, to change that state into a state of
   53  war...,” NOW, THEREFORE,
   54  
   55  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   56  
   57         Section 1. Section 250.475, Florida Statutes, is created to
   58  read:
   59         250.475 Mobilization of National Guard into active duty
   60  combat.—
   61         (1) SHORT TITLE.—This section shall be known as the “Defend
   62  the Guard Act.”
   63         (2) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the term:
   64         (a) “Active duty combat” means performing the following
   65  services in the active federal military service of the United
   66  States:
   67         1. Participation in an armed conflict;
   68         2. Performance of a hazardous service in a foreign state;
   69  or
   70         3. Performance of a duty through an instrumentality of war.
   71         (b) “Official declaration of war” means an official
   72  declaration of war made by the United States Congress pursuant
   73  to Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States
   74  Constitution.
   75         (3) MOBILIZATION INTO ACTIVE DUTY; DECLARATION OF WAR.
   76  Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Florida
   77  National Guard and any member thereof may not be released from
   78  this state into active duty combat unless the United States
   79  Congress has made an official declaration of war or has taken an
   80  official action pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 15 of
   81  the United States Constitution to explicitly call forth the
   82  Florida National Guard and any member thereof for the enumerated
   83  purposes of expressly executing the laws of the union, repelling
   84  an invasion, or suppressing an insurrection. The Governor shall
   85  take all actions necessary to comply with this section.
   86         Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.