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

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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

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HM 19

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

CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.