BILL REQ. #: S-3152.2
State of Washington | 62nd Legislature | 2012 Regular Session |
Read first time 01/16/12. Referred to Committee on Government Operations, Tribal Relations & Elections.
TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, 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:
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 2012, 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 Barack Obama, President of the United
States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of
Washington.