Oh boy, oh boy. Texas has just joined the growing list of states asserting their 10th amendment rights. According to the Texas Legislature, HCR 50 has passed with 99 Yeas, 36 Nays, 4 Present, not voting. Although the vote has not yet been certified by the House Journal Clerk, this is big news for the cause of Liberty and constitutional governance for Texans.
 The 81st Texas Legislature describes HR50 as follows:

Affirming that the State of Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution, serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates, and providing that certain federal legislation be prohibited or repealed.

Why this matters

There’s alot of confusion about this topic for the average person. Some have asked if this means Texas is going to secede. This bill, and those like it, have nothing to do with secession but rather ensuring that the citizens are still able to locally access and control their government – as was intended by the Founders. 

When a State asserts their 10th amendment rights they are simply reminding the Federal government that if any federal laws imposed upon a State are deemed in excess of the Federal government’s constitutionally granted authority (a.k.a. “totally illegal”), the State can disregard the law through something called “Nullification”.

It’s like reminding a bossy in-law that this is your house, not theirs and you’ll paint the walls any way you darn well please.

To read the full Resolution text and how your congressman voted click the link below.

How they voted

Yeas

Anderson; Aycock; Berman; Bohac; Bonnen; Branch; Brown, B.; Brown, F.; Button; Callegari; Chisum; Christian; Cohen; Cook; Crabb; Craddick; Creighton; Crownover; Darby; Davis, J.; Dunnam; Edwards; Eissler; Elkins; Fletcher; Flynn; Frost; Gallego; Gattis; Geren; Guillen; Gutierrez; Hamilton; Hancock; Hardcastle; Harless; Harper-Brown; Hartnett; Hilderbran; Homer; Hopson; Howard, C.; Hughes; Hunter; Isett; Jackson; Jones; Keffer(C); King, P.; King, S.; King, T.; Kleinschmidt; Kolkhorst; Laubenberg; Legler; Lewis; Lucio; Madden; Maldonado; Martinez; McCall; McReynolds; Merritt; Miklos; Miller, D.; Miller, S.; Moody; Morrison; Oliveira; Orr; Ortiz; Otto; Parker; Patrick; Paxton; Peña; Phillips; Pickett; Pitts; Quintanilla; Riddle; Rios Ybarra; Ritter; Rose; Sheffield; Shelton; Smith, T.; Smith, W.; Smithee; Solomons; Swinford; Taylor; Thibaut; Truitt; Turner, C.; Vaught; Weber; Woolley; Zerwas

Nays 

Allen; Alonzo; Anchia; Burnam; Castro; Chavez; Coleman; Davis, Y.; Deshotel; Dukes; Dutton; Eiland; Farias; Farrar; Flores; Gonzales; Gonzalez Toureilles; Hernandez; Herrero; Hodge; Leibowitz; Mallory Caraway; Marquez; Martinez Fischer; McClendon; Menendez; Naishtat; Olivo; Raymond; Rodriguez; Thompson; Turner, S.; Veasey; Villarreal; Vo; Walle

Present, not voting

Mr. Speaker; Bolton; Howard, D.; Strama

Absent, Excused

Alvarado; Driver; Farabee; Giddings; Kent; Kuempel

Absent, Excused, Committee Meeting

Corte

Absent

England; Heflin; Hochberg; Pierson

The Resolution Text

From: http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/html/HC00050E.htm

 By: Creighton, Hughes, Berman, Gattis, H.C.R. No. 50

      Guillen, et al.

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

        WHEREAS, Each Member of the Legislature feels great pride in being a citizen of the United States of America, which includes the right of citizens to petition their government for redress of grievances; and

        WHEREAS, All Texans have benefited from this state’s participation in the unique experience in democracy that first began on a field in Lexington, Massachusetts, and called the United States of America; and

        WHEREAS, Countless Texans have served in the Armed Forces of the United States with the brave sons and daughters of all our sister states to protect our state, our nation, and our union, and many of them gave the last full measure of devotion by offering their lives to preserve that union; and

        WHEREAS, Each member of the legislature has sworn a solemn oath to defend our national union; and

       WHEREAS, Each day, millions of Texans assemble in churches, synagogues, schools, arenas, fields, and homes to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the one nation, indivisible, for which that flag stands; and

        WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: “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, The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more; and

        WHEREAS, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and

        WHEREAS, Today, in 2009, the states are demonstrably treated  as agents of the federal government; and

        WHEREAS, Many federal laws are directly in violation of the  Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

        WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal government may not usurp; and

        WHEREAS, Section 4, Article IV, of the Constitution says, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,” and the Ninth Amendment states that “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people”; and

        WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that the Congress of the United States may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and

        WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous administrations and some now pending from the present administration and from congress may further violate the Constitution of the United States; now, therefore, be it

        RESOLVED by the house of representatives, the senate concurring, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas reaffirms the pride of all Texans in both our one and indivisible national union and in our one and indivisible state and the common heritage of both; and, be it further

        RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas hereby claim sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States; and, be it further

        RESOLVED, That this serve as notice and demand to the federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers; and, be it further

        RESOLVED, That all compulsory federal legislation not necessary to ensure rights guaranteed the people under the Constitution of the United States that directs states to comply  under threat of civil or criminal penalties or sanctions or that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding be prohibited or repealed; and, be it further

        RESOLVED, That the chief clerk of the House of Representatives is directed to send a copy of this resolution to the senators and representatives of Texas in Congress with the request  that this resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United States of America; and, be it further

        RESOLVED, That the chief clerk of the House of Representatives is directed to send a copy of this resolution to the President of the United States of America, the Vice President of the  United States of America, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America, the minority leader of the House of Representatives, and the minority leader of  the Senate, and to the governor of each sister state as an expression of the affection of the people of Texas for our one national and indivisible union.