S-0641.1  _______________________________________________

                    SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 8002

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State of Washington      55th Legislature     1997 Regular Session

By Senators Stevens, Benton, Zarelli, Roach, Hochstatter and Schow

Read first time 01/16/97.  Referred to Committee on Government Operations.

Claiming state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment.

    TO THE HONORABLE WILLIAM J. CLINTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF EACH STATE'S LEGISLATURE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

    We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

    WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows:

    "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 United States Constitution and no more; and

    WHEREAS, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the States specifically to be an agent of the States; and

    WHEREAS, Today, in 1997, the States are in fact treated as agents of the federal government; and

    WHEREAS, Numerous resolutions have been forwarded to the federal government by the Washington State Legislature without any response or result from Congress or the federal government; and

    WHEREAS, Many federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

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

    WHEREAS, A number of proposals now from the previous administrations and some now pending from the present administration and from Congress may further violate the United States Constitution;

    NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully resolve:

    (1) That the State of Washington hereby claims sovereignty 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 United States Constitution; and

    (2) That this serve as a Notice and Demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of its constitutionally delegated powers.

    BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable William J. Clinton, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives of each state's legislature of the United States of America, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.

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