Texas Governor Greg Abbott is calling for a Constitutional Convention to discuss nine proposed amendments. Among them is an amendment that would give the individual states the power to disregard or override a federal law.
Now, I do think a Constitutional Convention is a great idea. But this particular proposed amendment is a dumb idea. I suppose he would have to agree that, if Texas enacts a law, its counties would have the right to ignore or override that law, too? This would certainly lead to anarchy. A legally and properly enacted law needs to stand until it itself is repealed or changed.
Abbott's line of thinking is that the government is usurping state's rights in its overreach. He is absolutely correct. And the Tenth Amendment covers that: any power not explicitly granted to the federal government within the Constitution belongs to the states. So, when the federal government enacts a law that it does not have the power to enact, the states should sue in federal court to have the law declared unconstitutional. Once such a suit is filed, I would think the state would also ask the court to issue a temporary injunction against that law until the matter is settled.
Abbott needs to get it into his head that he needs to stop trying to make laws to force the government to abide by laws. The proper remedy is with the courts and he should be suing the hell out of the feds for their countless violations of the Tenth Amendment.
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