Getting tree-gnawing crazier by the day...
Arizona: Come for the stultifying Tea Partiers, stay for the on-going constitutional violations.
Oh boy. Arizona, the land that time forgot and progenitor of some sincerely crazy-ass right wing notions (the Gestapo-esque, 'show me your papers', "immigration" law being only the most recent), has outdone themselves in a big, big way.
Specifically, with a state law it intends to pass which permits the State to ignore or violate Congressional laws.
Huh?
Haven't we heard this one before? If only I could remember....
Oh yea, that's it...
Specifically, the law does the following/is premised upon the following:
"The committee shall recommend, propose and call for a vote by simple majority to nullify in its entirety a specific federal law or regulation that is outside the scope of the powers delegated by the People to the federal government in the United States Constitution," the bill reads. "The committee shall make its recommendation within thirty days after receiving the federal legislation for consideration and process."
According to the bill, "no authority has ever been given to the legislative branch, the executive branch or the judicial branch of the federal government to preempt state legislation."
I don't even know where to begin with this. Since our nation was proto-founded nearly 400 years ago, we've had this go around several times before. Whether it was Massachussets threatening to leave, or Maryland threatening to secede, or South Carolina actually seceding, or the failed Articles of Confederation, the battle for the hearts and minds of states' rights has been a consistent tension in our Nation.
This whole notion, though, smacks of some shit that eerily led to one War, one Reconstruction, and violent, phasic enforcement of Federal law for the benefit of some state citizens.
Again, we've seen this before. For the uninitiated, that's Alabama Gov. George Wallace with the proverbial "stand in the schoolhouse door". That "door" is really the old Coliseum, where my grad office was housed. I'll show you a pic of me in front of the plaque one day.
Simply put, States have long contended that they have the right to abnegate/ignore Federal legislation that gores one axe or another. Be it over slavery, integration, or now -immigration and Obama's 'socialism'- it all comes back to one very vile fact, that says terrible things about us: At its heart, the states' righters have racist, fevered imaginings of a better Ur; one founded on the "right people".
Fortunately, it's a settled issue. As if the Civil Rights turmoil of the 50s-70s didn't address it, and as though the Civil War didn't settle it, it's always been the case, that States cannot circumvent or cherry-pick laws they do not like or do not wish to enforce.
As for Arizona's contentions that "no authority has ever been given to the legislative branch, the executive branch or the judicial branch of the federal government to preempt state legislation", well, that's just plain fucking silly.
In fact, I think there is a long-standing document that specifically addresses this twat-tarded idea...if only I could remember.
Oh yea...that's it.
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
Read that last clause carefully.
-d.s
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