Revision: Jan. 9, 2021, 1:45 p.m.
HR 9 - AS INTRODUCED
2021 SESSION
21-0679
05/04
HOUSE RESOLUTION 9
A RESOLUTION supporting the principles of federalism.
SPONSORS: Rep. Folsom, Graf. 11; Rep. Blasek, Hills. 21; Rep. Layon, Rock. 6; Rep. Gorski, Hills. 7; Rep. Ankarberg, Straf. 10; Rep. Prudhomme-O'Brien, Rock. 6; Rep. Spilsbury, Sull. 8
COMMITTEE: State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs
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ANALYSIS
This resolution supports the principles of federalism.
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21-0679
05/04
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty One
A RESOLUTION supporting the principles of federalism.
Whereas, our nation was organized by the Constitution with a clear division of civil authority between the federal government and the individual states; and
Whereas, the Constitution contains several provisions intended to establish and preserve that proper balance of civil authority between the federal government and the individual states; and
Whereas, those provisions in the original Constitution include, in Article I, a Senate with equal suffrage for all states, equal suffrage for the House of Representatives when selecting a President, and a specific limitation of federal authority with the enumerated powers of Congress. In Article III there is a specific list of original jurisdictional authorities for the Supreme Court and Congressional control of appellate jurisdictional authority for the Supreme Court. In Article V equal suffrage is required for all states when proposing and ratifying constitutional amendments; and
Whereas, in the Bill of Rights certain rights of the people are enumerated in the first 8 amendments and the Ninth Amendment reserves all unremunerated rights for the people; and
Whereas, the Tenth Amendment clearly states: “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, James Madison said in Federalist #45 ““The powers delegated [that is, enumerated] by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite. The former [federal powers] will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. 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 the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the state;” and
Whereas, James Madison warned in 1792: “If Congress can apply money indefinitely to the ‘general welfare,’ and are the sole and supreme judges of the ‘general welfare,’ they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may establish teachers in every state, county, and parish, and pay them out of the public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post roads. In short, everything, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police would be thrown under the power of Congress…”; and
Whereas, in 1791 Thomas Jefferson wrote: “I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that ‘all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.’ To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition;” and
Whereas, in 1800 Thomas Jefferson wrote: “What an augmentation [growth] of the field for jobbing, speculating, plundering, office-building, and office-hunting would be produced by an assumption of all the state powers into the hands of the [federal] government. The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best: that the States are independent as to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign nations;” and
Whereas, Richard Henry Lee, in 1788 wrote: “In forming a federal constitution, which ex vi termini, supposes state governments existing, and which is only to manage a few great national concerns, we often find it easier to enumerate particularly the powers to be delegated to the federal head than to enumerate particularly the individual rights to be reserved;” and
Whereas, Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote in 1833: “Let us never forget that our constitutions of government are solemn instruments, addressed to the common sense of the people and designed to fix and perpetuate their rights and their liberties. They are not to be frittered away to please the demagogues of the day. They are not to be violated to gratify the ambition of political leaders. They are to speak in the same voice now and forever. They are of no man's private interpretation. They are ordained by the will of the people and can be changed only by the sovereign command of the people”; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives:
That the state of New Hampshire, on behalf of all the citizens of this individual state, renews its commitment to all of the unalienable rights of its citizens and all of the constitutional civil authority reserved for the individual state of New Hampshire; and
That the clerk of the New Hampshire house of representatives transmit a copy of this resolution to the President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, and the Speaker and the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives.