Nullification is commendable principally because its persistent practice engenders trust between the elected and the electorate and encourages the recognition of reliable patterns of interaction between the state and local authorities and the federal government.
Take the coverage of the 2012 elections carried on the three biggest 24-hour news channels (Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN) and you get a very conservative calculation of 72 hours in one day spent talking about the races in the 50 states.
Of those 72 hours of election coverage not one minute was devoted to reporting the results of several ballot initiatives nullifying unconstitutional acts of Congress. None of the highly paid, pancake-powdered pundits spoke a single syllable about the noteworthy and now codified efforts of citizens across the country to stop the encroachment of federal tyranny at the state borders.
At The New American, we strive to promote liberty through the publishing of news stories related to the Constitution, and to that end, proceeding from Atlantic to Pacific, we here present a brief rundown of the several nullifying proposals passed by voters in Tuesday’s elections.
Massachusetts: A substantial majority of voters (64 percent) in the Bay State voted in favor of a law “eliminating state criminal and civil penalties related to the medical use of marijuana, allowing patients meeting certain conditions to obtain marijuana produced and distributed by new state-regulated centers or, in specific hardship cases, to grow marijuana for their own use.”
Whether one agrees with the morality of smoking marijuana, the irrefutable truth is that there is no constitutional provision granting the federal government power to regulate in this arena. That fact, taken in the conjunction with the 10th Amendment, leaves the power to legislate on this matter in the hands of the states.
Massachusetts is the 18th state to nullify federal statutes criminalizing the growing and use of marijuana.
Alabama: On Tuesday 59 percent of voters in the Heart of Dixie approved Amendment 6, a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would “prohibit any person, employer, or health care provider from being compelled to participate in any health care system.” The question was placed on the ballot after the Alabama State Legislature passed the measure on the last day of the legislative session in 2011.
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