Full Text of Kansan Sovereignty Legislation: Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 1615

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 1615

By Senators Pilcher-Cook, Abrams, Apple, Barnett, Brownlee, Bruce, Colyer, Donovan, Emler, Huelskamp, Kelsey, Lynn, Marshall, Master- son, McGinn, Morris, Ostmeyer, Petersen, Pyle, D. Schmidt, Schodorf, Taddiken, Vratil and Wagle

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION claiming sovereignty under the
Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over cer-
tain powers; serving notice to the federal government to cease and
desist certain mandates; providing that certain federal legislation be
prohibited or repealed; and directing distribution.

WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United
States reads as follows:
‘‘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 that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United
States and no more; and

WHEREAS, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment
means that the federal government was created by the states for the
specific purpose of being an agent of the states; and

WHEREAS, Today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated as
agents of the federal government; and

WHEREAS, Many federal laws are in direct violation of the Tenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of
the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union of
States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal government may
not usurp; and

WHEREAS, Article IV, Section 4 says, ‘‘The United States shall guar-
antee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government’’,
and the Ninth Amendment states that ‘‘The enumeration in the Consti-
tution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others
retained by the people’’; 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 pending from the present administration and from Con-
gress may further violate the Constitution of the United States.

Be it resolved by the Senate of the State of Kansas, the House of Representatives
concurring therein: That the State of Kansas hereby claims
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;

Be it further resolved: That this serve as Notice and Demand to the
federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immedi-
ately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally del-
egated powers;

Be it further resolved: That all compulsory federal legislation which
directs states to comply under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanc-
tions or requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be pro-
hibited or repealed; and

Be it further resolved: That a copy of this resolution be distributed
to the President of the United States, the President of the United States
Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the
Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate of each state’s
legislature of the United States of America, and each member of the
Kansas Congressional Delegation.