By: Hegar S.C.R. No. 39

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

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, 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

WHEREAS, Section 4, Article IV, of the Constitution says, "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, 505 U.S. 144 (1992), and Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997), that Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative, executive, and regulatory processes of the states, and that, to do so, is a violation of the Tenth Amendment; and

WHEREAS, one of our nation's Founders and author of the Declaration of Independence, 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."; and

WHEREAS, one of the authors of the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton, expressed his hope that "the people will always take care to preserve the constitutional equilibrium between the general and the state governments." And, that, "this balance between the national and state governments forms a double security to the people."; and

WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous administrations and some now pending from the present administration and from Congress threaten to disturb this delicate balance between the federal government and the state governments; and

WHEREAS, Such encroachments by the federal government may result in a commandeering of the states' legislative, executive, and regulatory processes; and

WHEREAS, These acts undermine the spirit of the federalist system created by our Founders and are in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas 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; and, be it further

RESOLVED, That this serve as notice and demand to the federal government to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers; and, be it further

RESOLVED, That the power over the freedom of the right to keep and bear arms was reserved to the states and therefore, all acts of Congress to abridge that right are not law and are void; and, be it further

RESOLVED, That all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed; and, be it further

RESOLVED, That the Texas Secretary of State forward official copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to the Congress with the request that this resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.