Michigan is free

By Bernie Quigley

For The Hill on 12/6/12

Ideas grow in time if they are worthy. Time obliterates them if they are not. The so-called Tea Party may have sunk already under its own hubris and been cooped by flag-waving gingos, boors like Glenn Beck, and posturing politicians on the right. But the original idea behind it - states' rights and constitutional government - has this week had its finest moment: This week the Michigan House voted 107 to zero to nullify NDAA, the most egregious, totalitarian and un-American assault on American liberty since John Adams’ Alien and Sedition Acts.

The new approach – states’ rights, sound money and constitutional government - which brought about this new dawn began with Ron Paul, the Gray Champion who singlehandedly championed this thinking. And the red state, red neck association with the Tea Party, howling like a ghost dog in the wilderness, was not his doing. This states’ rights approach was first used in opposition during the George W. Bush administration. That Michigan, by all means a blue state, in a fully bipartisan vote, votes to nullify today brings it back to original principles. And it brings this movement to a more mature plain of engagement.

At the close of 2011, Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for the year 2012. In it are what some constitutional experts consider to be some of the greatest constitutional violations in American history, writes Michael Boldin of The Tenth Amendment Center. The Obama administration has aggressively argued in court that the executive branch has this power.

“At issue are sections 1021 and 1022 which, in essence, create a new power for the federal government to ‘indefinitely detain’ – without due process – any person. Indefinitely. That’s little different than kidnapping.”

In response, there’s been a bit of a firestorm from people across the political spectrum. Local communities in Colorado sent out the first warning shots, passing resolutions and ordinances rejecting such power earlier this year. Then, at the close of the 2012 state legislative session, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell signed House Bill 1160, making that state the first to paw a law not only rejecting the federal act, but fully banning any state agency from cooperating with the feds on it. And Texas State Representative Lyle Larson introduced House Bill 149 (HB149), the Texas Liberty Preservation Act. This might be the strongest anti-NDAA bill introduced yet, writes Boldin.

Michigan’s bill HB5768 declares, “no agency of this state, no political subdivision of this state, no employee of an agency of this state or a political subdivision of this state acting in his or her official capacity, and no member of the Michigan national guard on official state duty shall aid an agency of the armed forces of the United States in any investigation, prosecution, or detention of any person pursuant to section 1021 of the national defense authorization act…”