WASHINGTON STATE HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL

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WASHINGTON STATE HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL

H-1028.1
HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4009

State of Washington 61st Legislature 2009 Regular Session

By Representatives Shea, Klippert, Condotta, Kretz, Anderson, McCune, and Kristiansen

Read first time 01/30/09. Referred to Committee on State Government &Tribal Affairs.

1 TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND

2 TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF

3 REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE

4 UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE

5 SENATE AND SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF EACH STATE'S

6 LEGISLATURE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

7 We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of

8 the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully

9 represent and petition as follows:

10 WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United

11 States specifically provides that, "The powers not delegated to the

12 United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States,

13 are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."; and

14 WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal

15 power as being those powers specifically granted to it by the

16 Constitution of the United States and no more; and

17 WHEREAS, Federalism is the constitutional division of powers

18 between the national and state governments and is widely regarded as

19 one of America's most valuable contributions to political science; andp. 1 HJM 4009

1 WHEREAS, James Madison, "the father of the Constitution," said,

2 "The powers delegated to the federal government are few and defined.

3 Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and
4 indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external

5 objects, [such] as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. The

6 powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects

7 which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties,

8 and properties of the people."; and

9 WHEREAS, Thomas Jefferson emphasized that the states are not

10 "subordinate" to the national government, but rather the two are

11 "coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. The one is

12 the domestic, the other the foreign branch of the same government.";

13 and

14 WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton expressed his hope that "the people

15 will always take care to preserve the constitutional equilibrium

16 between the general and the state governments." He believed that "this

17 balance between the national and state governments forms a double

18 security to the people. If one [government] encroaches on their

19 rights, they will find a powerful protection in the other. Indeed,

20 they will both be prevented from overpassing their constitutional

21 limits by [the] certain rivalship which will ever subsist between

22 them."; and

23 WHEREAS, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means

24 that the federal government was created by the states specifically to

25 be limited in its powers relative to those of the various states; and

26 WHEREAS, Today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated as

27 agents of the federal government; and

28 WHEREAS, Many federal mandates are directly in violation of the

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

30 WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v.

31 United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not simply

32 commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and

33 WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous administrations and

34 some now being considered by the present administration and from

35 Congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States;

36 NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully resolve:

37 (1) That the State of Washington hereby claims sovereignty underHJM 4009 p. 2

1 the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all

2 powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government

3 by the Constitution of the United States; and

4 (2) That this serve as a Notice and Demand to the federal

5 government to maintain the balance of powers where the Constitution of

6 the United States established it and to cease and desist, effective

7 immediately, any and all mandates that are beyond the scope of its

8 constitutionally delegated powers.

9 BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately

10 transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United

11 States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the

12 House of Representatives, the President of the Senate and the Speaker

13 of the House of Representatives of each state's legislature of the

14 United States of America, and each member of Congress from the State of

15 Washington.

END

STATE OF WASHINGTON hOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4009/ http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2009-10/Pdf/Bills/House%20Joint%20Memorials/4009-State%20sovereignty.pdf