LIBERTY DEFENDERS LEAGUE
"Action Is Necessary For Change"
PRINCIPLES OF NULLIFICATION
Nullification is where the people of the states declare a particular law outside of the authority granted in the Constitution. However, individuals are the ultimate nullifiers; non compliance is the method. Power comes from the people.
The case for this is strong both historically and legally.
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The constitution is a set of strictly constructed rules. The people alone can demand a particular reading of the rules, can change the rules and can even dissolve the federal government.
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In the state ratifying conventions, the people of the states were assured that the federal government possessed only the powers delegated to it, that the states retained all other powers and the feds could not exercise additional powers.
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Nullification is a moderate position; it is not secession or submission. In response to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in 1798 and 1799:
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"The several states composing the United States are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to the general government."
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"In case of a deliberate, palpable and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states are duty bound to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining the liberties appertaining to them."
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The Tenth Amendment was added as an explicit understanding of the limited nature of the federal government; nullification is how we enforce the rules of the contract. Non compliance can be powerful.
4 TYPES OF NULLIFICATION:
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Individual nullification is a refusal to obey a law.
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Practical nullification is to make something void and of no consequence. ('nullification in effect')
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Legal nullification is a law that prevents enforcement of a federal act.
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Jury nullification is a judgement of the constitutionality of a law.
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The federal government relies on state cooperation to enforce its acts. By taking a hands off approach, those laws become impossible to enforce.
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See: necessary and proper, general welfare and commerce clauses to learn their original meaning.
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To learn more about our strategy, see STRATEGY.