On Saturday, October 23, the Nullify Now! Tour, sponsored by the Tenth Amendment Center and WeRefuse.com, made its way to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Saturday’s event featured an array of reputable speakers, including The New American’s own Joe Wolverton. The event welcomed such a large group of people that seats needed to be set up in the hallway to accommodate all visitors.
Of the variety of topics addressed during Saturday’s event were the separation of executive, judicial, and legislative powers as they are enumerated in the Constitution, as well as popular sovereignty, and federalism.
Likewise, guests addressed a variety of unconstitutional legislations, like Obamacare and cap and trade, and focused on the role of the states, as specified by the Tenth Amendment in the Constitution to deal with such unconstitutional laws.
Jack Hunter, columnist for the Charleston City Paper,”The Southern Avenger” personality for WTMA 1250 AM talk radio, and contributing editor to Taki’s Magazine and The American Conservative, also spoke at Saturday’s event to discuss how nullification can be applied on issues across the spectrum.
All speakers addressed the power of nullification attributed to the states by the United States Constitution. The Constitution has enumerated the majority of the powers to the states and to the individual, all of which have long since been tread upon by the federal government. However, the Nullify Now! tour encourages states to look back towards the Constitution for sovereignty, and to rely heavily upon nullification to overturn unconstitutional pieces of legislation passed by the federal government.
As noted by Joe Wolverton in Nullify Now! Tour Steams into Chattanooga, “Nullification is the principle that each state retains the right to nullify, or invalidate, any statute passed by the national government that exceeds the enumerated powers granted to the national government. This powerful weapon against tyranny is in the arsenal of every state. The several states, as sovereign entities, formed the union and as creators of that compact, they hold the ultimate authority as to the limits of the powers of the central government to exact laws that are to bind the states and the people.”
According to the Nullify Now tour website:
When a state “nullifies” a federal law, it is proclaiming that the law in question is void and inoperative, or “non-effective,” within the boundaries of that state; or, in other words, not a law as far as that state is concerned.
Thomas Woods, the New York Times best-selling author of Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century, has been a leading advocate of state nullification and is pleased by the momentum it has gained in recent months. He appeared at the Orlando, Florida, event, where he emphasized the importance of nullification. He indicates that the Founding Fathers believed that nullification was the “moderate middle ground,” not the road to secession, as today’s establishment would have us believe.
Woods celebrates the recent public outcry for states to regain their sovereignty from the federal government, and pointed to the defeat of Republican and Democratic establishment politicians that have contributed to the growing Leviathan of the federal government as an example of states willing to take back their country from the federal government. The increasing popularity of nullification has also been indicative of the states desire to regain their sovereignty. Noting the increasing popularity of state nullification, Woods asserts, “We are getting out into the mainstream with these ideas.”
Likewise, states have already made use of nullification, including with regards to the Firearms Freedom Act and the Real ID Act.
In an interview with Thomas Woods on Fox Business Networks’s FreedomWatch, Libertarian Judge Andrew Napolitano discussed Woods’ book: Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century.
During the interview, Woods explained, “Thomas Jefferson imagined that the states would act as the sentinels of the liberty of the people. They would protect the people from the unconstitutional overreaches and those powers have by and large been stripped from the states over the years and they need to be reclaimed.”
Napolitano, a fierce advocate of state nullification, concluded the interview by saying, “These are exciting times we live in. Who would have thought in 2010 we would be talking about the principles that were so dear to Thomas Jefferson? Your book, Nullification, has brought this to the floor.”
Nullification has also been supported by the Tenth Amendment Center, whose stated goal according to its website, is: “to preserve and protect the principles of strictly limited government through information, education, and activism. The center serves as a forum for the study and exploration of state and individual sovereignty issues, focusing primarily on the decentralization of federal government power as required by the Constitution.”
Recognizing the importance of these goals, other prominent organizations have agreed to co-sponsor the Nullify Now tour, including the Campaign for Liberty, The John Birch Society, Young Americans for Liberty, the Daily Paul, and The New American magazine.
Previous venues for the Nullify Now tour have included Forth Worth, Texas, and Orlando, Florida, where TNA’s own Alex Newman spoke on the dangers of Obamacare. The tour will be taking a break for the holidays but will continue to make its way around the country in the New Year, including to Phoenix, Arizona, and Los Angeles, California.
Those interested in the Nullify Now tour should visit www.nullifynow.com.
