LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO

THIS IS A DRAFT COPY OF THE MEMORIAL TO BE SENT TO THE PRESIDENT AND THE GOVERNMENT NEXT WEEK
I RECEIVED THIS COPY FROM IDAHOAN'S FOR LIBERTY AND CHAMPAGNE FOR LIBERTY... SHOW YOUR SUPPORT LETS MAKE SURE THIS MAKES SOME NOISE...


RS18617
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO
Sixtieth Legislature First Regular Session - 2009
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL NO
BY________________________________
1 A JOINT MEMORIAL
2 TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF
3 REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED,
4 AND TO THE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION REPRESENTING THE STATE OF
5 IDAHO IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES.
6 We, your Memorialists, the House of Representatives and the Senate of the State of Idaho
7 assembled in the First Regular Session of the Sixtieth Idaho Legislature, do hereby respectfully
8 represent that:
9 WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States specifically
10 provides that, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited
11 by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."; and
12 WHEREAS, the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being those
13 powers specifically granted to it by the Constitution of the United States and no more; and
14 WHEREAS, Federalism is the constitutional division of powers between the national and
15 state governments and is widely regarded as one of America's most valuable contributions to
16 political science; and
17 WHEREAS, James Madison, "the Father of the Constitution," said "The powers delegated
18 by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are
19 to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised
20 principally on external objects, [such] as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with
21 which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved
22 to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs,
23 concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement,
24 and prosperity of the State."; and
25 WHEREAS, Thomas Jefferson emphasized that the states are not "subordinate" to the
26 national government, but rather the two are "coordinate departments of one simple and integral
27 whole.... The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch of the same government."; and
28 WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton expressed his hope that "the people... will always take
29 care to preserve the constitutional equilibrium between the general and the state governments."
30 He believed that "this balance between the national and state governments... forms a double
31 security to the people. If one [government] encroaches on their rights, they will find a powerful
32 protection in the other. Indeed, they will both be prevented from over passing their constitu‑
33 tional limits by [the] certain rivalship which will ever subsist between them."; and
34 WHEREAS, the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal
35 government was created by the states specifically to be limited in its powers relative to those of
36 the various states; and
37 WHEREAS, today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal
38 government; and


2
1 WHEREAS, many federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to
2 the Constitution of the United States; and
3 WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States,
4 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regula-
5 Tory processes of the states; and
6 WHEREAS, a number of proposals from previous administrations and some now being
7 considered by the present administration and from Congress may further violate the Constitution
8 of the United States.
9 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the First Regular Session of
10 the Sixtieth Idaho Legislature, the House of Representatives and the Senate concurring therein,
11 that the state of Idaho hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitu‑
12 lion of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal
13 government by the Constitution of the United States; and that this Memorial serves as a Notice
14 and Demand to the federal government to maintain the balance of powers where the Constitu‑
15 lion of the United States established it and to cease and desist, effective immediately, any and
16 all mandates that are beyond the scope of its constitutionally delegated powers.
17 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives be,
18 and she is hereby authorized and directed to forward a copy of this Memorial to the President
19 of the United States, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives
20 tatives of Congress, and the congressional delegation representing the State of Idaho in the
21 Congress of the United States.