In December 1828, South Carolina had 5,000 copies of John C. Calhoun’s “Exposition and Protest” printed and distributed throughout the state. A defiant document, Calhoun’s “Exposition” outlined a theory of constitutional interpretation first adumbrated in the infamous Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which asseverated the right of states to declare “null and void” acts of the federal government within their respective jurisdictions. These instances of the nullification doctrine were based on the view that certain acts of the federal government could be deemed unconstitutional by state authorities and reserved to states the option of interposing their sovereign will between their citizens and officials attempting to enforce national law.
In his “Disquisition on Government,” which appeared two decades later, Calhoun explained, “It is this negative power—the power of preventing or arresting the action of the government—be it called by what term it may—veto, interposition, nullification, check, or balance of power—which, in fact, forms the Constitution.”
In short, a valid Constitution should allow any of its constituent parts to interpret its terms any way it likes, regardless of the Supremacy Clause or those pesky introductory words to the acclaimed document, which state, “We the People”—or the first Article of the Constitution, which assigns to Congress the authority to make national law. More remarkably, Calhoun admitted in a letter written to a colleague in 1832 that the real inspiration for his nullification doctrine was safeguarding the power of the South to preserve its peculiar institution: slavery. Clearly, depraved intentions spawned this nefarious constitutional construction by Southern elites: preserve your political power by any means possible.
Interpretations like this lurk beneath the Obama administration’s recent non-enforcement of federal law. For instance, President Obama’s Department of Justice declared in 2011 that it regarded The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)—duly enacted by a majority in Congress, to use the president’s sophomoric constitutional reminder—to be unconstitutional and would no longer defend it in court. Oh, really? What happened to Article Two, Section Three of the U.S. Constitution, the part that enjoins the president to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed?” DOJ insisted it would continue to “enforce” the law but still has managed to ignore it in several cases involving immigration and gay marriage, as pointed out by Representative Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), one of which involved the department “vacating” a decision made by the Board of Immigration Appeals involving a gay man. And “not defending” a law in court on constitutional grounds is tantamount to lack of enforcement because the bottom line is: if you don’t like federal law, simply don’t enforce it. Which is the federal version of nullification.
Nowhere has this nullification doctrine been more apparent or more maddening than the federal government’s refusal to enforce national immigration laws. Furthermore, the Obama administration has announced that it no longer will abide by the so-called 287(g) agreements with the state of Arizona. These agreements permitted state and local authorities to assist in the enforcement of federal laws on immigration. Of course, if you have no intention of enforcing the law anyway, federal authorities certainly don’t want states to do it in their absence. Also, since national policy in this area has been significantly determined by executive order—since the president’s de facto amnesty announcement for children of illegal immigrations—neither Congress nor the American states seem to have any role to play.
And the nullifications keep on coming. On July 12, the Health and Human Services Department announced that it was granting waivers to certain states from the work requirements of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act, perhaps the signature achievement of the Clinton administration. Republicans reacted with predictable outrage, but also with a constitutional case to make, centering on HHS’ lack of legal authority to administer by regulation what it is denied to do by law, one that has been regarded by most observers as a huge success. As far as HHS is concerned, none of that matters, which is another egregious case of what critics have termed “executive overreach.”
But the HHS decree represents much more than that. In fact, there has been considerable commentary on Obama administration policies under the rubric of the “imperial presidency,” a term that dates back to the 1960s. However, the real doctrine is more threatening, and the dangers are far deeper; the Obama-ites are not just doing their “imperial presidency” thing; they’re practicing nullification, with designs on power as suspect as those that inspired that interpretation’s notorious roots. Indeed, if the dark visage of John C. Calhoun were somehow to encounter the administration of Barack Obama, one can easily imagine a thin smile of approval cracking his stony expression. Nullification remains alive and well, though this time in federal clothing.
Photo credit: terrellaftermath
Please share this post with your friends and comment below. If you haven’t already, take a moment to sign up for our free newsletter above and friend us on Twitter and Facebook to get real time updates.
Follow @WestJournalism
Loading ...
good post thank you for a good work product.
The infamous Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions? You are 10 pounds of BS shoved into a 5-pound bag. Who were the authors of these “infamous” Resolutions? Thomas Jefferson and James Madison!!!! Wow, we certainly don’t want those two crazies involved in our politics! This is the kind of cr*p we have to put up with from hear-no-truth; see-no-truth; speak-no-truth Conservatives, moderates, Libertarians, and Liberals. You can bet the author’ll be taking late-night walks thorugh SW DC with his kids real soon. I mean. it makes no difference, right? Have you seen the videos of those flash riots from the other day? All blacks looting, yet not one mention of it in the articles, and that PC-whupped kid, Rush Limbaugh, commented on it in passing today without even thinking the word ‘black’, evidently. Yes, folks, race matters. More than anything else. But you can’t handle the truth. To paraphrase: you may not be interested in race, but race is interested in you. If Romney is this ignorant and delusional, his election will accomplish nothing good. And his father (George of the Detroit riots — 1967) was so out of it he had his brain orbiting Uranus.
We have the biggest criminal in history illegally occupying our White House. His Attorney General, princess Eric ‘cut throat’ Holder(man) IS NOT the top lawman. He’s the top lawBREAKER. And all this illegal, criminal, felonous behavior is condoned by our judges in our courts and, obviously, by the U.S. Congress. Taking NO action against criminals is the same thing as condoning their behavior. Of course, obozo and his criminal henchmen/women will nullify the laws of this land. Most liars, cheaters, racists and murderers seek to make their behavior legal, so they don’t have to face the consequences. But, their crimes will eventually catch up with them and once they’re finally caught, it will be 500% more ‘hell’ for them to pay. See website: http://www.haasstrep68.com
Everyone, from the media to movie stars acts as if Obama was legitimate, he is not, Hillary and John Conyers , Glaire McCaskill and several others tried changing the constitution so Obama could run for President legally, they couldnt’ do it although Hillary tried three times, he ran anyway and won, he was not legal then and he is not legal now, but none of them came forward and said a word when he ran or when he won. The TV talking heads refer to him as Mr. President, and he is allowed to bilk people out of billions of dollars for his bogus campaigns. As far as I’m concerned all of the rotten Bills he has signed are illegal, he has no authroity to sign bills , if he does , prove it, show a birth certificate then, a real one. The fact that this man would actually ture in a forged certificate tells you what he thinks of us. Why are we allowing the CFR or any of the elite run this country or choose our Presidents, who are they to do that? what do we owe them or those bankers of the Fed Reserve? they owe us for not executing them years ago. Russia threw them out, Iceland threw them out, George Soros paid for 11 to 14 congressment who are sitting in office right now, we have a Progressive caucus and a black caucus , which seems ot have the same people as members, get rid of them , we don’t need more places for the progressives to congregate? we don’t need any caucuses.
I really think its time we got rid of the Supreme court, they are paid and judged by their behavoir according ot my copy of the constitution, if they dont do their job they can be fired, so lets get them out so lawyers who have been trying ot present a case can be heard, according to this court no one has any standing, I think every American citizens has standing, I’m beginning to think they have no standing. Get them out and we will be able to clean up the whole Government. We will finally get a chance to choose our own candidates, not soemthing the CFR is manipulating and its getting tiresome. Obama is rtuining this country with his giveaways, his generosity to China and all of their tax exemption for their factories. Anyone can come in here and buy up all the property they want and China is taking full advantage of that. The Musalims are still being brouhgt in here, they just brought in 80,000 more and changed the welfare system accordingly, in spite of what Obama says about the Muslims they are not brigning any trades or knoweldge with them, we are paying for them to learn English as well. The UN is shoving Africans into all of the luxcury buildings here in Illinois , I live in one , I know, they could not afford ot pay what I pay for an apt, they have no jobs, we pay for those new SUV’s they all drive, and the food and the clothes. They get some of them jobs, your jobs, Obama wants us ot have nothing, we don’t need anything, we’re white Americans, and no black American is getting SUVs either. I have no idea what it takes ot make us agree that no black person gets arrested in this country like the New Black panthers who thinks they should kill all white babies, that guy is still hanging around on the streets doing nothing. The black flash mobs came in right around them, why not, who is going to do anything to them, they have Obama . We better wake up and do soemthing about this situation, this man has his finger over the red button and that scares me.
Think of this, Obama has 2 children, lovely young ladies, what kind of man would but his kids in a position like the one he is in, he could be arrested any time now, he could actually be hung for the things he has done during war time, he is ordering our troops into places they have no need to be and into wars that have nothing to do with us and he is not even the commander in chief, this is what his kids are going ot read about, do we really think these are his kids? would you do that to yours? As a Mother , would you do this to your children? Is it one of those things that if you are a muslim lying is OK as long as its for the good of the Muslims? Get these people out and the immigrants from the middle east, Obama had no right to give our money to to the UN to bring in people who are looking to hurt us and change our constitution to Sharia, he has no right to do anything since he is not a valid President.. We will never reecover from all of htis if we dont’ do what is right for us, not foreigners. Fianlly. Get rid of the UN and get us out of globalization, at least get us out of the UN. Please. They are bing given to much power and they ar ento able to handle it, also the leader of the UN is a Chinese communist, why are we taking orders from him?
Madhatter15 – I agree. Let’s get them out. The federal government was formed by the people, and so it can be dismantled by the people. Catch 22. The people are doing nothing to dismantle it. How to get people motivated? Don’t know…..