SR0181 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

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SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States specifically provides that, "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"; and

WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being those powers specifically granted to it by the Constitution of the United States and nothing more; and

WHEREAS, Federalism is the constitutional division of powers between the national and state governments and is widely regarded as one of America's most valuable contributions to political science; and

WHEREAS, James Madison, the "father of the Constitution", said, "The powers delegated to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, [such] as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. ... The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people"; and

WHEREAS, Thomas Jefferson emphasized that the states are not "subordinate" to the national government, but rather the two are "coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole. ... The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch of the same government"; and

WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton expressed his hope that "the people ... will always take care to preserve the constitutional equilibrium between the general and the state governments." He believed that "this balance between the national and state governments ... forms a double security to the people. If one [government] encroaches on their rights, they will find a powerful protection in the other. Indeed, they will both be prevented from overpassing their constitutional limits, by [the] certain rivalship, which will ever subsist between them"; and

WHEREAS, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be limited in its powers relative to those of the various states; and

WHEREAS, Today, the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government; many federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and

WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous administrations and some now being considered by the present administration and from Congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we hereby claim sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States; and be it further

RESOLVED, That this resolution serve as a notice and demand to the federal government to maintain the balance of powers established by the Constitution of the United States and to cease and desist, effective immediately, any and all mandates that are beyond the scope of its constitutionally delegated powers; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be presented to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of each state's legislature in the United States, and to each member of the Illinois congressional delegation.