Bill Text: FL H0019 | 2010 | Regular Session | Introduced


Bill Title: Limiting the Scope and Exercise of Federal Power

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 63-0)

Status: (Failed) 2010-04-30 - Died in Economic Development & Community Affairs Policy Council [H0019 Detail]

Download: Florida-2010-H0019-Introduced.html
HM 19
1
House Memorial
2A memorial to the Congress of the United States, urging
3Congress to honor the provisions of the Constitution of
4the United States and United States Supreme Court case law
5which limit the scope and exercise of federal power.
6
7 WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
8United States proclaims: "The powers not delegated to the United
9States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States,
10are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," and
11 WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment defines the scope of federal
12power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of
13the United States and no more, and
14 WHEREAS, the limitation of power contained in the Tenth
15Amendment established the foundational principle that the
16Federal Government was created by the states specifically to be
17an agent of the states, and yet currently the states are
18demonstrably treated as agents of the Federal Government, and
19 WHEREAS, many federal laws are in direct violation of the
20Tenth Amendment, and
21 WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment ensures that we, the people of
22the United States of America and each sovereign state in the
23Union of States, now have, and have always had, rights the
24Federal Government may not usurp, and
25 WHEREAS, Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution of the
26United States begins: "The United States shall guarantee to
27every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government," and
28the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
29declares: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain
30rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others
31retained by the people," and
32 WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court ruled in New York
33v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress does not
34have the authority to simply commandeer the states' legislative
35processes by compelling the states to enact and enforce federal
36regulatory programs, and
37 WHEREAS, a number of proposals from previous
38administrations and some proposals now pending from the present
39administration and from Congress may further violate the
40Constitution of the United States, NOW THEREFORE,
41
42Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
43
44 That the Legislature claims sovereignty under the Tenth
45Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all
46powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the Federal
47Government by the Constitution of the United States.
48 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this memorial serves as a
49notice and a demand to the Federal Government, as our agent, to
50cease and desist, effective immediately, from issuing mandates
51that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated
52powers.
53 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that all compulsory federal
54legislation that directs states to comply under threat of civil
55or criminal penalties or sanctions or requires states to pass
56legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed.
57 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
58dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
59President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
60United States House of Representatives, to the presiding
61officers of each state legislature of the United States of
62America, and to each member of the Florida delegation to the
63United States Congress.
CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.
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