{"id":1991,"date":"2013-12-19T10:49:04","date_gmt":"2013-12-19T16:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/?p=1991"},"modified":"2013-12-19T10:49:04","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T16:49:04","slug":"what-is-my-duty-as-a-legislator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orderofephors.com\/?p=1991","title":{"rendered":"What is my duty as a Legislator?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0When an individual enters the Legislature of a state, that person takes an oath to \u201cprotect and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America and of the State of\u00a0 (my state).\u201d\u00a0 It is as solemn and sacred a pledge as a human being can give and is a covenant binding that person with all those who have gone before, beginning with colonial America.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those who served in the legislatures of the British colonies are the people who were responsible for leading our forefathers out of tyranny into our Republic.\u00a0 A miracle system that venerates, and for the first time in history protects, individual freedom.\u00a0 Those people were the ones that cried out for our \u201cinalienable God given rights.\u201d\u00a0 It was in the Virginia Legislature, the House of Burgesses, that Patrick Henry immortally said, \u201cI know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Our \u201cBill of Rights\u201d came a large part from that same Virginia Assembly, which in its wisdom sent a delegate to the 2nd<\/sup> Continental Congress, a brilliant young legislator.\u00a0 That delegate, Thomas Jefferson, who using as his guide the recently enacted \u201cVirginia Rights of Man\u201d wrote one of the greatest documents of all history, the American Declaration of Independence.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was those same Legislatures of the Colonies that sent their very best emissaries to the Continental Congress which conducted the affairs of the war that won us our independence.\u00a0 Those Legislatures, after we gained our independence, again sent their very best to Philadelphia to write the Constitution of the United States of America.\u00a0 And when it was written, it was the Legislatures that provided for its adoption.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many, if not most, who have taken the oath, have not reflected deeply upon what its obligations are.\u00a0 However, it is obvious that there is no obligation to \u201cprotect and defend\u201d unauthorized laws.\u00a0 Constitutionally unauthorized laws are no law at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of us are not aware that many of the most prominent Revolutionary leaders were very fearful of the new Constitution when it was being considered for ratification.\u00a0 They felt that the document did not overtly protect those “inalienable rights endowed to us by our Creator” nor did it give due deference to its<\/i><\/b> creator, the States.\u00a0 Great Revolutionary patriots like Patrick Henry, George Clinton, Melancton Smith, George Mason and Henry Lee openly and stridently opposed the writers of the “Federalist Papers,” James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay because they were proposing (although they, for the most part denied it) a superior government that could and probably would present a tyranny over the States and ultimately the People not unlike that that the Revolution had so recently overthrown.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The vote on the adoption of the Constitution by the States was a narrowly run thing, it being adopted by miniscule majorities in many states … and only then after the Federalists promised their opposition that the first order of business of the new government would be to adopt a “Bill of Rights” that guaranteed the status of the States and the inalienable rights of the people that already existed in the Constitutions of many of the States.\u00a0 With those assurances, the Constitution was adopted.<\/span><\/p>\n

The “Bill of Rights” consists of the first ten Amendments to the Constitution.\u00a0 We are all familiar with the rights of free speech, press and religion and the right to bear arms.\u00a0 We, for the most part, have never given any thought to quartering troops in our houses and we are all aware of the freedoms of the individual when standing before the law and courts that are guaranteed in the 4th<\/sup> through the 8th<\/sup> Amendments.\u00a0 The unarticulated rights of man protected by the 9th<\/sup> Amendment have never been truly tested or vetted.\u00a0 And the Federal government has never attempted to enforce the 10th Amendment.\u00a0 Nevertheless our government under the Constitution of the United States of America would be, I believe, unthinkable without the “Bill of Rights” that the “Anti-Federalist” patriots fought so hard for.\u00a0 And don’t forget that the Founders held that all the ten amendments in the “Bill of Rights” to be fundamental to the protection of our Freedoms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of us who have made a limited study of the application of the US government can cite many of the advantages given our great Republic by the “Bill\u201d, but in my experience and acquaintance with state government there is a continual complaint … why does the Federal government ignore the 10th<\/sup> \u00a0Amendment?<\/span><\/p>\n

Consider why!\u00a0 None of the three branches of the Federal government has any interest in policing laws that favor the States … any consideration of the States opposes the powers of one, two or all three of the branches of the Federal government.\u00a0 The prima-facie truth is that the 10th Amendment provides the Constitutional vehicle for the States to oppose and refuse un-Constitutional actions by the Federal government.\u00a0 It provides that any law (or court decision interpreting a law) that is not specifically<\/i><\/b> authorized in the Constitution is no law at all.\u00a0 The States have full Constitutional power and sanction to ignore and refuse to enforce such epistles from the President, Congress or the Supreme Court.\u00a0 State Legislatures are fully authorized by the Constitution to not only to disregard such illegal attempts, but to provide penalties for attempts to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much devilment of the States has been provided by Supreme Court decisions that find “hidden intent” in the plain language of the Constitution.\u00a0 Where in the Constitution is there a clause that says that the Federal Courts can determine the make-up and apportionment of state legislatures when the plain wording in the Constitution guarantees the States a Republican form of government?\u00a0 How does the Federal government gain the right to pass any law whatsoever that it wishes because the Supreme Court in Wickard v. Filburn<\/i> found that a pig eaten by a farmer, grown by the farmer, fed wheat grown by the farmer, none of which ever left his farm was in interstate commerce?\u00a0 These decisions and the States sycophantic adherence to them were the precursors to the fulminating federal tyranny now descending upon us.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are precedents as to how to proceed.\u00a0 One being that when the Statists of the early Republic attempted to impose the tyranny of the “Alien and Sedition Laws” upon the populace and the States and the Supreme Court upheld them, great champions of freedom, no less than Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, proposed “nullification” by the States.\u00a0 Their efforts resulted in the laws being repealed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, as a legislator your duty is to represent, protect and advance the views of your constituents to the state gathering for the benefit of all.\u00a0 But another duty … a higher duty is to protect the people of your state from tyranny … from whatever quarter it comes.\u00a0 The 10th<\/sup> Amendment of the precious “Bill of Rights” demands that you stand up to the statists in the Federal government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where in the Constitution does it say that this state is inferior to the EPA; or the Fish and Wildlife Service; or the Department of Labor;\u00a0or the Department of Education or any other bureau?\u00a0 The answer is that it does not … none of the rules, edicts, mandates, coercions, regulations or other demands are legally authorized in the Constitution.<\/span><\/p>\n

If we, in the legislature do not stand against this descending tyranny, then tyranny we will have…\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

OUR REPUBLIC WILL CEASE TO EXIST!!!<\/span><\/p>\n

The Legislature is duty bound for the protection of our freedoms to inspect and then reject all actions from the Federal government that do not conform to the 17 actions authorized to the Federal government under the Constitution.\u00a0 The 10th<\/sup> Amendment protects us from Federal tyranny and demands our protective vigilance.\u00a0 There would have been no Constitution without the 10th<\/sup> Amendment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only powers specifically given to Congress appear in Article I Section 8, and are the following:<\/span><\/p>\n