HB 1343

HB 1343 – AS INTRODUCED

2010 SESSION

10-2280

10/03

HOUSE BILL 1343

AN ACT establishing a joint committee on the constitutionality of acts, orders, laws, statutes, regulations, and rules of the government of the United States of America in order to protect state sovereignty.

SPONSORS: Rep. Itse, Rock 9; Rep. Ingbretson, Graf 5; Rep. Comerford, Rock 9; Rep. K. Roberts, Ches 3

COMMITTEE: State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs

ANALYSIS

This bill establishes a joint committee of the legislature to consider the constitutionality of acts, orders, laws, statutes, regulations, and rules by the government of the United States including the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and to consider the actions necessary to protect the sovereignty of the state of New Hampshire.

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [~~in brackets and struckthrough.~~]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

10-2280

10/03

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Ten

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 Findings.

I. The Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, Part 1, Article 7 declares that the people of this State have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent State; and do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right, pertaining thereto, which is not, or may not hereafter be, by them expressly delegated to the United States of America in congress assembled.

II. The Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, Part 2, Article 1 declares that the people inhabiting the territory formerly called the province of New Hampshire, do hereby solemnly and mutually agree with each other, to form themselves into a free, sovereign and independent body-politic, or State, by the name of The State of New Hampshire.

III. Each State acceded to the compact titled the Constitution for the United States of America as a State, and is an integral party, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other party.

IV. The State of New Hampshire when ratifying the Constitution for the United States of America recommended as a change, “First That it be Explicitly declared that all Powers not expressly & particularly Delegated by the aforesaid are reserved to the several States to be, by them Exercised.”

V. The other States that included recommendations, to wit Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Virginia, included an identical or similar recommended change.

VI. These recommended changes were incorporated as the ninth amendment, the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people, and the tenth amendment, 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, to the Constitution for the United States of America.

VII. Therefore, the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a General Government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, all remaining powers for their own self-government.

VIII. The construction applied by the General Government, as is evidenced by sundry of their proceedings, to those parts of the Constitution of the United States which delegate to Congress a power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,” and “to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested by the Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof,” goes to the destruction of all limits prescribed to their power by the Constitution. Therefore, words meant by the instrument to be subsidiary only to the execution of limited powers, ought not to be so construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to be so taken as to destroy the whole residue of that instrument, and whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.

IX. No power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right remain, and were reserved to the States or the people. Furthermore, also they guarded against all abridgment by the United States of the freedom of religious opinions and exercises, freedom of speech and of the press, and retained to themselves the right of protecting the same by one of the amendments to the Constitution, which expressly declares, that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press;” thereby guarding in the same sentence, and under the same words, the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press: insomuch, that whatever violated either, throws down the sanctuary which covers the others, and that libels, falsehood, and defamation, equally with heresy and false religion, are withheld from the cognizance of federal tribunals.

X. Therefore, all acts of Congress of the United States which do abridge the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, are not law, but are altogether void, and of no force.

XI. The Constitution of the United States, having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies, and felonies committed on the high seas, offenses against the law of nations, and slavery, and no other crimes whatsoever.

XII. Therefore, all acts of Congress, the orders of the Executive or orders of the Judiciary which assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those so enumerated in the Constitution are altogether void, and of no force; and that the power to create, define, and punish such other crimes is reserved, and, of right, appertains solely and exclusively to the respective States, each within its own territory.

XIII. The State of New Hampshire when ratifying the Constitution for the United States of America recommended as a change, “Twelfth Congress shall never disarm any Citizen unless such as are or have been in Actual Rebellion.”

XIV. The other States that included recommendations, to wit New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Virginia, included an identical or similar recommended change.

XV. These recommended changes were incorporated as the second amendment, and, the United States Supreme Court has ruled in Heller v. The District of Columbia (2008) that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right of the people.

XVI. Therefore, all acts of Congress, the orders of the Executive or orders of the Judiciary which assume to regulate or license the ownership of firearms manufactured, sold, and held within the jurisdiction of any State are altogether void, and of no force; and that the power to regulate or license the ownership of firearms manufactured, sold, and held within the jurisdiction of any State is reserved, and, of right, appertains solely and exclusively to the respective States, each within its own territory subject to the limitations of its own Constitution.

XVII. The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144 (1992), that congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states.

XVIII. Therefore, all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding are prohibited.

XIX. The Constitution for the United States of America, Article VI, states “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”

XX. Therefore, laws enacted, but not pursuant to the Constitution for the United States, Article I, Section 8, are not part of the supreme law of the land and are not binding upon the States comprising the United States or the citizens thereof.

XXI. The Constitution for the United States of America, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 gives Congress the authority to authorize inferior officers of the government of the United States of America not enumerated in the Constitution by law and for them to be appointed by the manner proscribed by law enacted by the Congress, and that the Constitution gives not such authority to the President, and therefore, no officer not authorized by Constitution or by law or exercising a power not authorized by the Constitution, nor their subordinates shall have any authority in, or over the sovereign State of New Hampshire, nor any inhabitant or resident thereof, nor any franchises created under the authority thereof when within the borders of the State of New Hampshire.

XXII. The government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.

XXIII. Therefore the Legislatures and Legislators of the several States have the right and duty to consider the constitutionality of any legislative act or order promlugated by the government of the United States of America; and to protect their governments, inhabitants, and residents and instruments created under their authority by prohibiting, and if necessary punishing the enforcement of any Acts by the Congress of the United States of America, Executive Order of the President of the United States of America, or Judicial Order by the Judicatories of the United States of America which assumes a power not delegated to the government of United States of America by the Constitution for the United States of America. Acts which would cause such a prohibition or punishment include, but are not limited to:

(a) Requiring the States to create a national identification card system.

(b) Requiring involuntary servitude, or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war, or pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

(c) Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 other than pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

(d) Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of the press.

(e) Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition.

XXIV. The Constitution for the United States of America guarantees to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive, when the Legislature cannot be convened, against domestic violence.

XXV. Therefore; there exists a class of Acts by the Congress of the United States, Executive Orders of the President of the United States of America, or Judicial Orders by the Judicatories of the United States of America, that constitute a direct challenge to the Constitution for the United States of America by the government of the United States including, but not limited to:

(a) Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within one of the States comprising the United States of America without the consent of the legislature of that State or authority derived from that body.

(b) Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government.

2 Committee Established to Consider the Constitutionality of Acts and Orders by the Government of the United States of America; State Sovereignty.

I. There is hereby established a joint committee on the constitutionality of acts, orders, laws, statutes, regulations, and rules of the government of the United States. This joint committee of the legislature shall consider the constitutionality of acts, orders, laws, statutes, regulations, and rules by the government of the United States including the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government, and consider the actions necessary to protect the sovereignty of the state of New Hampshire and the liberty of its citizens by restraining the government of the United States to its constitutional limits. The committee shall be comprised of 3 senators chosen by the senate president and 8 representatives chosen by the speaker of the house of representatives. The members shall be chosen in a manner that reflects the proportions of the party affiliations of the membership of each chamber.

II. The joint committee on the constitutionality of acts, orders, laws, statutes, regulations, and rules of the government of the United States shall:

(a) Take recommendations from individual legislators of acts, orders, laws, statutes, regulations, and rules of the government of the United States to be considered.

(b) Meet regularly to hold public hearings on the constitutionality of acts, orders, laws, statutes, regulations, and rules of the government of the United States.

(c) When necessary propose legislation to prohibit, and if necessary, punish the enforcement of unconstitutional acts, orders, laws, statutes, regulations, and rules of the government of the United States.

III. The joint committee on the constitutionality of acts, orders, laws, statutes, regulations, and rules of the government of the United States shall communicate regularly with committees established for similar purposes by the other states comprising the United States of America.

IV. Nothing in this act shall be construed to prevent any individual legislator from communication with legislators of any other state comprising the United States of America regarding the constitutionality of acts, orders, laws, statutes, regulations, and rules of the government of the United States; to prevent any legislator from introducing legislation to protect the sovereignty of the State of New Hampshire or the liberty of its citizens from unconstitutional of acts or orders of the government of the United States; or to prevent the governor from challenging the constitutionality of acts, orders, laws, statutes, regulations, and rules of the government of the United States through the office of the attorney general of the state of New Hampshire.

3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect upon its passage.