10th Amendment Assertion of the State of Alabama

To the State of Alabama House of Representatives, the Alabama Senate and the Governor of the State of Alabama to introduce and pass a Resolution stating:

WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States 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; and

WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more; and

WHEREAS some federal actions weaken states rights protected by the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal government may not usurp; and

WHEREAS art. IV, sec. 4, Constitution of the United States, reads, The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads, The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people; and

WHEREAS the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States, 112 S.Ct. 2408 (1992), that the United States Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and

WHEREAS all states, including Alabama, find themselves regularly facing proposals from the United States Congress that weaken states rights protected by the Tenth Amendment;

BE IT RESOLVED that the Alabama State Legislature hereby claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution serves as Notice and Demand to the federal government to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.