Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Remember back at the start of the 50th Arizona legislature in January 2011 how the Tea-Publican Birthers-Birchers-Secessionists filed several bills that articulated a "nullification theory" of federal law? Neo-Confederate insurrectionists in Arizona Legislature revive discredited 'nullification' theory. And there was this "Tenther" nut who tried to put nullification on the November ballot. 'Tenther' Nullification Nonsense.
Expect to see more of this ignorance when the the 51st Arizona legislature convenes next week, just as Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce a series of proposals to deal with gun violence in the wake of the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
It has already started in the state of Wyoming, and is being hyped by the conservative media entertainment complex. Right-Wing Media Promote Unconstitutional Nullification in Response to Federal Gun Violence Prevention Laws:
Conservative media have reacted to pledges by Democrats to strengthen
gun violence prevention laws after the massacre of 20 young children at
Sandy Hook Elementary School by invoking Hitler and warning
of revolution. Now several conservative media outlets are promoting a
proposed Wyoming law that aims to nullify several possible federal gun
violence protection measures.
State lawmakers in Wyoming have proposed
a bill that aims to nullify any federal laws banning assault weapons,
high-capacity magazines, or requiring firearms to be registered. The
bill states that federal employees who attempt to enforce such laws can
be imprisoned for up to five years. Major conservative blogs and news
websites are promoting the law, cheering it as a move against "gun
grabbers."
Fox Nation hyped the story with the headline: "Wyoming Tells Washington Gun Grabbers To Back The Hell Off."
The Drudge Report also highlighted the Wyoming legislation with the headline: "WY Lawmakers Propose 'Gun Protection' Legislation To Thwart Feds."
And Breitbart.com stated that "Wyoming threatens arrest for federal gun grabbers."
But the Supreme Court has rejected attempts by states to nullify federal law.
For example, in the 1958 Cooper v. Aaron case,
the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the attempt by Arkansas to
nullify judicial decisions on desegregation, on the grounds that
"Article VI of the Constitution makes the Constitution the 'supreme Law
of the Land' " and the federal courts are the final arbiters of the
Constitution. Article VI also states
that "the laws of the United States" that are passed pursuant to the
Constitution are "the supreme law of the land … laws of any State to
the contrary notwithstanding." Indeed, the Supreme Court rejected nullification attempts as early as 1809.
Conservatives have agreed that nullification is not permitted by the
Constitution. In January 2011, Idaho's Republican attorney general released
an opinion finding that the state cannot nullify the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act, noting that "no court has ever upheld a State
effort to nullify a federal law." The right-wing Heritage Foundation stated
in February 2012 that "nullification is unconstitutional … there is
no clause or implied power in either the national or the various state
constitutions that enables states to veto federal laws unilaterally."
Furthermore, libertarian law professor Randy Barnett — one of the leading architects of the constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act — has said "state nullification is kind of a non-starter in our legal system."
And then of course there was the American Civil War and the 14th Amendment which ended the "nullification" argument forever — except for those Neo-Confederate dead-enders who try to revive it every few years under the banner of "states' rights."