States' rights battles rage in Old Dominion
TAGS: David Sherfinski
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From Virginia's lawsuit over health-care reforms to a bill that would create "Don't Tread on Me" license plates, a growing movement is percolating among the Old Dominion's top GOP officials and the conservative rank-and-file to push back against federal authority over an array of issues.
The state's top three elected officials, for example, have voiced support for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would allow a decision by two-thirds of state legislatures to override federal law.
The movement for the so-called "Repeal Amendment" could gather momentum next year, as state legislatures that shifted from blue to red after the November elections begin their deliberations. Republicans have added more than 675 seats in state legislatures during this election cycle and have flipped chambers from Democratic to Republican control in at least 13 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
That movement is only one expression of anti-federal sentiment in Virginia.
Del. John O'Bannon, R-Henrico, filed a bill at the request of his constituents that would create a "Don't Tread on Me" license plate.
And Del. Mark Cole, R-Spotsylvania, filed a bill that would allow goods produced or manufactured in the state and which remain in Virginia to be exempt from federal regulation or Congress' constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce.
"The federal government, I think, has just gone way beyond what it was intended," Cole said. "It's time for the states to start pushing back."
Cole acknowledged that such a bill may have difficulty getting through the state's Democratically controlled Senate. But last year, the law that exempts state residents from having to buy health insurance -- proposed in anticipation of such a mandate from the federal government -- cleared both the Republican-controlled House and the Senate.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has used the law as a basis for his lawsuit against the federal government over health care.
State Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax, said unfunded federal mandates are certainly a concern, but that he wasn't sure a "patchwork" movement -- where federal law is heeded in some states but not others -- would be the best remedy.
"There is some efficiency in everyone doing things the same way," he said. "If we want something fixed that the federal government has done, that's what we have congressmen and senators for. And that's what we have elections for."
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Read more at the Washington Examiner:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/2010/11/states-rights-battles-rage-old-dominion#ixzz1621Xju7u
