Does a state have the right to secede from the union? | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's Note: Diane Rufino has supplied us with a most interesting concept: Should individual states ever consider secession as a last resort to seek remedy?

   It is a rather long treatise on the subject so I have broken it into chapters. This is the fourth chapter. Reading the first chapter, the second chapter, the third chapter, and the fourth chapter is a prerequisite to understanding the fifth.

Chapter Five

    But the point to remember is that once the government exceeds its bounds, as established by The People under the Constitution, or assumes powers not delegated to it by the "consent of the governed," then the government technically becomes void and non-binding on the States and the people. We don't need the Supreme Court to tell us its interpretation of the Constitution. We have the very words and writings of the very men who drafted our Constitution and created our government.

    Thomas Jefferson wrote: "The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by compact, under the style and title of the Constitution of the United States, and of certain amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for general purposes, delegated to that government certain powers, reserving, each state to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whosoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no effect."

    So what does this all mean? Should the States and American people consider repealing the 14th Amendment, or at least parts of it? Personally, I would support such a repeal. The 14th Amendment was passed to make sure that hostile states did not discriminate against the newly-freed blacks. It was passed so that they would be treated equally under the law and would enjoy all the privileges of US citizenship. We live in a color-blind society today. Racial equality has been reached, despite what Reverend Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters, and other race-baiters like to argue. Equal opportunity exists. Equal protection exists. And so, there is no more reason for the States to suffer under the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment has taken a huge area of regulation away from the States on behalf of their citizens. The states have inherent police powers (to regulate for the safety, health, welfare, and morality of its citizens) which have been neutered by the 14th Amendment. Allowing the individual states to regulate locally provides a variety of solutions to common problems - a virtual free market of ideas. Competition among states has the tendency to improve the quality of life for everyone.

    Additionally, the 14th Amendment has provided the federal courts with an enormous opportunity for abuse. In addition to the de facto grant of legislative and executive power to judges, the 14th Amendment includes a de jure grant of power to Congress. Section 5 reads: "The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article." Conduct in one state is often imputed to the other states. Since the Brown v. Board of Education decision(1954; decided under the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment), equality before the law has shifted effortlessly into forced equality of outcome.

    While we the people were being overwhelmed and distracted by a rapidly increasing government, a slew of progressive and activist Supreme Court decisions, and an enlarging entitlement mentality, government usurped our power. The servant has become our master.

    Nullification and peaceful secession are the only means of returning to a system of government that respects rather than destroys individual liberty. But secession is a desperate solution and therefore should be a measure of last resort. Nullification, therefore, is the course that the States and the people should pursue. A return to an era of strong sovereign states is the answer to reigning in the size and control of the federal government so that our system resembles the one envisioned by our Founders. It is the only way to "restore" our nation from the fundamental transformation that been in place since the Civil War. (A person "transforms" something that he isn't happy with but "restores" some that has great value). Our Founders came up with a unique and special formula to enhance and maximize individual liberty and the government has found a way to re-figure it.

    States should, among other things, do the following:

    1). Support the Repeal Amendment
    2). Repeal the 17 Amendment
    3). Challenge federal laws and executive action that exceed the powers granted by the US Constitution
    4). Scrutinize acts of Congress and actively pass nullification bills (exempting its citizens from being subject to them)
    5). Decline federal funding. (and for every State that adopts such a policy), then it should demand that its citizens be afforded a tax credit on their federal income tax because citizens of one state should not be funding projects for another state).
    6). Support a Constitutional amendment that requires that federal court judges to cite the Founding Fathers or Ratifying Documents to support the meaning, intention, and spirit of the Constitutional provision at issue.
    7). Repeal any clauses in their state constitutions prohibiting secession (Stand up for your rights !!)

    The People should, among other things:

    1). Become educated about their Constitution and read what our Founders had to say about it
    2). Become engaged in the election process, especially in the vetting of candidates
    3). Elect candidates that support States' rights (local and federal)
    4). Research all judges that are running for judicial positions and elect only those who are "strict constructionists"
    4). Challenge federal laws that exceed Congressional authority under the Constitution and invade the states' lawful sphere of regulation. [See Bond v. United States, 564 U.S. __ (2011); Individuals have standing to challenge a federal statute that legislates beyond the federal government's enumerated powers and interferes with the powers reserved to States. Individuals have standing because the proper division of sovereign power between the States and the federal government (= federalism) serves to protect and secure individual liberty].

    North Carolina, my home state, still has the secession prohibition clause in its state constitution:

    North Carolina Constitution: Article I, Sec. 4. Secession Prohibited.

    This State shall ever remain a member of the American Union; the people thereof are part of the American nation; there is no right on the part of this State to secede; and all attempts, from whatever source or upon whatever pretext, to dissolve this Union or to sever this Nation, shall be resisted with the whole power of the State.

    This clause is an insult because it bears the mark of punishment and shame. It reflects a defeated spirit and a defeatist attitude. A proud state, a strong state doesn't publicly announce to the world that it will forever blindly follow a tyrannical central government.

    QUESTION: What is Agenda-21 and should the States be concerned?

    --> Agenda-21 is a massive land regulation initiative. Yes, the States should be concerned. Agenda-21 will impose hugely burdensome and expensive regulations on private landowners to live sustainably with respect to natural resources and the hyped-up anti-global warming movement. States should defend the rights of its citizens to own and enjoy their property (as long as they don't burden the rights of others in doing so).

    Agenda-21 will eventually impact private land development in every state in the United States. Agenda 21 is a UN initiative on sustainable land development, adopted by more than 178 Governments at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil, in June 1992 and then reaffirmed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa in August-September 2002. It is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations, governments, and major groups in every area in which humans impact on the environment. It will involve massive regulation and will be implemented through ICLEI, a network of local governments committed to sustainability. So far, there are 10 cities or counties alone in my state of North Carolina which have joined ICLEI to implement sustainability measures locally - Asheville, Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Chatham County, Durham, Orange County, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem.

    Add this new level of regulation on top of the Food Safety Bill, supported by North Carolina's own Senator Richard Burr (booo!!), which just granted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) new powers (just what it needs) to regulate farm land and the farming industry. The Food Safety Bill will already do incredible harm to farming in NC. Farmers and others to make a living off the land cannot absorb any more regulation and continue to survive? What is private property worth when the means to control it, enjoy it, and use it for its maximum potential are destroyed by onerous government regulation?

    As Ronald Reagan asserted in his "A Time For Choosing" speech in 1964: "The notion of 'the full power of centralized government' was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize. They knew that governments don't control things. A government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. They also knew that outside of its legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy. Private property rights are so diluted that public interest is almost anything a few government planners decide it should be.... Now it doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? And such power already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment. This is the issue.. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves."

    People need to keep their ears open for initiatives in their counties that incorporate the typical buzz words: "sustainability," "green," "recycle," etc.

    QUESTION: Should the States be concerned with the bloated size of the federal government?

    --> Yes. The government was intended to be one of limited powers and responsibilities. The bulk of the powers were to remain with the people and the States, so that individuals could truly enjoy and benefit from their God-given liberties. Currently, there are 473 government departments and agencies, many which are duplicative. [See: http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/index.shtml ] The current trend is for the federal government to ignore the responsibilities it was initial vested with (such as Immigration and National Security) and to insinuate itself in all state and personal affairs.

    According to Madison, the idea was to keep the power base close to the people. The emphasis was on strong local self-government. The states would be responsible for internal affairs and the federal government would confine itself to those areas which could not be fairly or effectively handled by the states (such as raising an army, providing a Navy, regulating Commerce among nations and among the several states, raising revenue, regulating money, and establishing rules for Naturalization and Immigration). Power closest to the people is almost most responsive to the people.

    It is said that there is so much government regulation that at any given moment, each of us is violating one law or another. It's not because we simply can't abide by all the laws (which perhaps we can't), but it's because the laws are so numerous and so volumnous that we simply can't keep up. John Locke warned us about allowing the government to regulate too much and to make too many laws. When laws become too numerous and detailed, they can destroy liberty just as surely and effectively as having no law.

    Thomas Jefferson said: "To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition."

    QUESTION: Should the States be concerned about the growing "Nanny State"?

    --> Absolutely. The government taxes individuals excessively - to fund big government and to "condition" and control states through federal grants and subsidies. States accept government funding and its conditions because they can't raise enough state funds to do everything it needs. They can't raise enough state funds because they know that individuals are already taxed excessively by the federal government and they can't burden their residents with increased state taxation. Money that is kept local is most easily controlled by the people for its most beneficial and highest uses. Local politicians who control the money feel more accountable to the people. Funding is less likely to be needed from the federal government which keeps them from being "commandeered" by the government to serve its purposes and advances its policies. Early in the 20th century, the federal government adopted the mindset that the government should take care of those in our society who genuinely can't do for themselves and those who temporarily fall behind. They understood that a compassionate government should provide a safety net for its citizens. Although the vision was well-intentioned, the temptation for abuse and fraud was not only felt by the people themselves but by government as well. The "safety net" quickly turned into a "way of life" for too many people. The "safety net" quickly became the new "American Dream" and it changed the character of the types of immigrants who come to our shores and across our borders. Social Security was once considered a 'right' by American workers because it was their money, after all. The government withheld Social Security payments to keep in a "safe" fund for the individual once they retired. It was a "safety net." If the person had no other means of income, at least he or she could collect the money the government 'forced' them to set aside. But Social Security became a 'right' even to those who didn't contribute. Then the government began to raid the people's funds. It no doubt used the money to provide other "entitlement" programs.

    Soon we saw the "safety net" become an automatic "entitlement." And the programs grew. And the people became more and more dependent on the government than they did on their own initiative, ambition, and resources. The social pressure of success and contribution - the mentality that created this nation and helped it flourish - was gone. And just as little children become unruly when they are not shown discipline, Americans have become a morally and ethically weaker breed. The need for a good education is no longer an imperative. The concepts of risk and sacrifice and innovation and hard work don't equate as strongly with the notion of the "American Dream" as they used to. Stable families have been eroded because where young men and women once had to make good personal choices in their lives, government programs are easily available so that those choices don't have to be made. A woman doesn't need a bread-winner any longer so she can stay home and raise well-mannered, productive, studious children. She can have children and the government will fund them AND raise them !! The Nanny State has been created. The problem is that government funding doesn't foot the entire bill. The States pay a huge chunk into these programs. And what do they get in return? They get a dumbed down populace with little respect for rules and social norms and a generational mentality of dependence. They become a drain on the state rather than a contributor. In his "A Time for Choosing" speech, Ronald Reagan talked about government's role in social planning and wealth distribution. In addressing the mentality that lead to such social planning, he said: "We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So they're going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning. Well, now, if government planning and welfare had the answer--and they've had almost 30 years of it--shouldn't we expect government to read the score to us once in a while? Shouldn't they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of people needing help? The reduction in the need for public housing? But the reverse is true. Each year the need grows greater; the program grows greater." Looking at the number of people on welfare who are obese and lazy, one today can 'come to the conclusion that they got that way by taking advantage' of those who aren't.