Principle 11

The original intent of the Constitution is that the federal government is an agent of the states. Hence in ratifying the Constitution each state had an opportunity to approve or disprove of the document, which allowed the federal government to have ONLY its limited powers.

The Constitution, with its vital 10th Amendment, is not an instrument for the federal government to restrain the states, nor the federal or state governments to restrain the people.

Thomas Jefferson penned the Kentucky Resolutions, which states in part:

States are self-governing, and have the right to “Nullify” Federal mandates.

“[The] Constitution for the United States… delegate[s] to that [Federal] Government certain definite powers, reserving each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self Government; and that whensoever the General [Federal] Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force… the Government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that as in all other cases of compact among parties having no common Judge, each party has an equal right to judge of itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.”

The federal government was and is a joint action of the states in creating a compact among themselves, and cannot tell the states, with no room for disagreement or appeal, what their own Constitution means. James Kilpatrick, working with Thomas Jefferson, put the question this way:

“Are the alternatives two only: submission, or arms? Is the choice truly confined to an acceptance of tyranny on the one hand, or a resort to the sword on the other? Every consideration of reason, common sense, and constitutional theory demonstrate that in a civilized and enlightened society, disputes are not to be so resolved.”

The only way a state can both remain in the Union and retain its liberties in the face of an unconstitutional act by the federal government is to declare the federal action null and void and refuse to enforce it-or in other words to nullify it! A state’s Nullification of ANY mandate by the federal government, including Obamacare, is apt and proper.

“The State government will, in all possible contingencies, afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority.” – Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 28

The 10th Amendment reads: “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.” IAP

“The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” – James Madison, Federalist Paper #45

Principle 19 of Cleon Skousen’s “5000 Year-Leap” states:

“Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained by the people.”