"I'd be lying if I said this isn't disconcerting and more than a little alarming."

[babylonsister]

Posted with permission.

http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/02/18021870-nullification-campaign-advances-in-multiple-states?lite

Nullification campaign advances in multiple states
By Steve Benen
-
Thu May 2, 2013 2:31 PM EDT


Measures like these continue to make me uncomfortable, largely because they're premised on a discredited legal theory decided by the Civil War.

The Alabama state Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would nullify all federal gun laws in the state, joining a growing list of state legislatures looking to ban gun legislation from the books.

The Alabama bill says that any federal law that is contrary to the Second Amendment would be declared "null and void" in the state.

Now, there's a certain tautological quality to appreciate: unconstitutional laws will be considered unconstitutional. Brilliant.

But the question is which government entity gets to decide which federal laws are contrary to the Second Amendment. Alabama seems to think it can play the role of the federal judiciary -- if the state attorney general thinks he or she doesn't like a federal law, then federal law will be ignored in the state of Alabama.

And that's nutty.

But it remains part of a pattern. The Republican-controlled Missouri House of Representatives advanced a bill last week that says any new federal gun measures would be ignored in the state, while the Republican-controlled South Carolina House of Representatives is looking to nullify elements of the Affordable Care Act.

And all of this coincides with nullification efforts in Kansas, North Carolina, and elsewhere.

To reiterate a basic legal principle, states can't pick and choose which federal laws they like and dislike. It's my sincere hope that this is just a bizarre fad among radicalized Republicans, and to borrow a phrase, the "fever" gripping GOP politics will soon fade without incident. Chances are, cooler heads will prevail and these various nullification efforts will fade away, left to become a punch-line among future historians marveling at the far-right hysteria of the Obama era.

But I'd be lying if I said this isn't disconcerting and more than a little alarming.

[MadHound]

1. Actually it might be a good thing,

Every one of these stupid laws are going to be going to court, where they will be struck down repeatedly, thus costing the taxpayers of those states a ton of money. Perhaps the voters will realize just how stupid these lawmakers are and vote them out.

I wouldn't get too terribly worried until one of these hits the SC and is upheld. Then we have a problem.

[badtoworse]

2. What Alabama does is meaningless - federal law is federal law and still applies in Alabama

As a practical matter, I think it's a bit different: The state is telling the federal government to enforce the law themselves; they are not going to do it for them. I don't believe there is anything in the constitution that obligates a state government to enforce federal law, but I'm not a lawyer and can't say for sure.

I do think it's interesting that there were howls of outrage when the State of Arizona started taking it on themselves to enforce federal immigration laws to stop illegal immigration into that state. IIRC, they were enjoined from doing so by a federal court. Given that, I'm not sure what recourse the feds would have with Alabama and gun control laws.

Maybe a lawyer will weigh in on this.

[geek tragedy]

5. The Alabama law declares all federal gun laws null and void inside Alabama.

It doesn't merely prohibit state officials from enforcing them, it declares the federal laws "of no effect in this state" and states that the legislature "shall adopt and enact any and all measures as may be necessary to prevent the enforcement of any federal acts, laws, orders, rules, or regulations" regarding guns.

These people are insane.

[badtoworse]

6. They can't stop the feds from enforcing federal law.

[geek tragedy]

7. That's reality. Reality and Alabama are not intimately acquainted.

The mentality hasn't changed all that much since 1861.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. They are just good at playing to the audience of Republican voters.

Remember George Wallace standing in the doorway of U of Ala. proclaiming the university would never be integrated?

It was all for show, he had already talked to Pres. Johnson.

And, today, in that doorway, is a short lecturn with a plaque on it, telling of that famous "historic moment".
Saw it with my own eyes.

[mysuzuki2]

3. Did any of these maroons pass American History in high school?

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. It's not just a bizarre fad among radicalised Republicans

state legalisation of marijuana is another issue of state attempts to nullify Federal laws that has broad support on the left. It's the same thing in a different guise.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. DOJ statement issued

Does Alabama have medical marijuana clinics?