Glenn Reynold’s (of Instapundit) USA Today’s column spoke of both individual and State level nullification telling the Federal Government “Screw you!” (emphasis mine):
Meanwhile, on the marijuana front, the people of states like Colorado are engaging in an odd, 21st century variety of nullification. Unlike the 19th century John Calhoun version, state laws legalizing marijuana don’t purport to neutralize the still-extant federal laws banning cannabis. But the state, and millions of Coloradans, are simply ignoring the federal law and, in essence, daring the feds to do something about it.
State laws, of course, can’t neutralize federal law, as the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause makes clear. But, bloated as it is, the federal law enforcement apparatus isn’t up to the task of prosecuting all the marijuana users in Colorado. And if it tried, it would have to bring them to trial before juries in Colorado, who would probably acquit most of them. There would also be massive political backlash, amplified in the coming 2014 and 2016 elections because Colorado is a swing state. And in response to Colorado’s example, other states look likely to follow suit, making the feds’ problem much bigger.
So, despite all the federal laws on the books, Colorado has de facto nullified them, and started a process that may very well snowball, all without directly attacking the federal laws, or the federal government, at all. Meanwhile, millions of Americans may be in the process of effectively killing Obamacare simply by staying home.
As we struggle, mostly in vain, to rein in the metastasizing power of a federal government that has grown out of control, perhaps Irish Democracy offers a solution. Sometimes it seems like that’s the only kind of democracy that’s likely to make a difference.
And, I might add, a number of States have tried to nullify Federal firearms laws by the fact that the Federal Government is only supposed to regulate interstate commerce and not in-state commerce. But I guess another good example of an incipient Irish Democracy is what I wrote about here earlier today where 10s of thousands Connecticutians are just going Galt where they are just sitting on their hands when it comes to registering their firearms.
It just seems that certain sets of Legislators aren’t listening to their limiting documents they should be respecting and observing (the Constitution(s)) and the citizens that are telling them the same things. Not good things will come of this if they keep on “not listening”.
