Soverignty and the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

The definition of sovereignty is the supreme power or control especially over a body politic; freedom from external control; controlling influence. We think of countries around the globe as independent sovereign states and I have to ask, do we think of Ohio as a sovereign state? The answer should be yes! Ohio and the other forty-nine states that make up the United States are in fact sovereign. These fifty independent states should be likened to fifty small countries, each with their own boundaries, laws, and leaders. Indeed, there is a legal argument to be made with that statement, see http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2009/02/21/were-the-states-sovereign-nations-2/ for more discussion on that.





The states delegated certain rights of their sovereignty to a central federal government with ratification of the constitution and I will briefly examine the term delegate as it is done in the link above. To delegate is to transfer power or to assign. Therefore, it is fair to say that the states assigned or transferred certain rights to the federal government. However, ever so mindful as the founders were, there was a fear that eventually a large central government would become too large, too powerful, and begin to overtake or usurp the rights and power of the states. Thus, in the Bill of Rights passed very shortly after the constitution, we have the 10th Amendment, which reads:





"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."

The tenth amendment defines the entire scope of the federal government. More precisely, it limits the scope of the federal government to only those powers delegated to it by the states. Therefore, the federal government derives its power from the states. It is an agent of the states.

It can be argued that since its inception, through the Civil War, the passage of the 16th and 17th Amendments and into today, the federal government has been overstepping its authority of the states. In The Federalist Papers, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay argued in favor of a central federal government telling us that the federal government could never grow too large because the people would not stand for it, they would never allow that to happen. They were wrong.

Today, the federal government continuously dictates to the states. The federal government tells the states that they must pass this legislation or that legislation if they are to receive federal funding. One most egregious example is in the recently passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, states are required to raise Medicaid eligibility standards to 300% of the federal poverty guidelines. Here's an example of what that means: Federal poverty guidelines for a four person household equals a yearly income of $21,200, 300% = 21,200 X 3 = $63,600!!! Therefore, in my house with my wife and three kids and my income as a State Representative, I can qualify for Medicaid!! Do we really need to give handouts to people with that kind of income?

It is for these reasons and so many more which I've not covered today, that I have introduced Ohio's State Sovereignty Resolutions. The Resolution is not as strongly worded as some states have introduced (there's no language of secession), but more strongly worded than other states.

The Resolution is to reaffirm our rights under the Constitution as a sovereign state, to tell the federal government that we believe in the Constitution and to let the federal government know that we expect them to abide by it. To learn more about Ohio State Sovereignty and what other states have been doing, visit The Ohio Republic. Be sure to click through to the other sites that they are connected to.