From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Nullification, in United States constitutional history, is a legal theory that a state has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal law which that state has deemed unconstitutional. The theory of nullification has been rejected repeatedly by the courts, and it has never been legally upheld.[1] The theory of nullification is based on a view that the States formed the Union by an agreement (or compact) among the States, and that as creators of the federal government, the States have the final authority to determine the limits of the power of that government. Under this, the compact theory, the States and not the federal courts are the ultimate interpreters of the extent of the federal governments power. Under this theory, the States therefore may reject, or nullify, federal laws that the States believe are beyond the federal governments constitutional powers. The related idea of interposition is a theory that a state has the right and the duty to interpose itself when the federal government enacts laws that the state believes to be unconstitutional. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison set forth the theories of nullification and interposition in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in 1798. A more extreme assertion of state sovereignty is the related action of secession, by which a state terminates its political affiliation with the Union. Courts at the state and federal level have generally rejected the constitutionality of nullification, including the Supreme Court.[2] The courts have found that under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, federal law is superior to state law, and that under Article III of the Constitution, the federal judiciary has the final power to interpret the Constitution. Therefore, the power to make final decisions about the constitutionality of federal laws lies with the federal courts, not the states, and the states do not have the power to nullify federal laws. Between 1798 and the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, several states threatened or attempted nullification of various federal laws, including the Supreme Court of Wisconsins ruling in 1854 that the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was unconstitutional. None of these efforts were legally upheld. The Supreme Court rejected nullification attempts in a series of decisions in the 19th century, including Ableman v. Booth, which found that Wisconsin did not have the power to nullify the Fugitive Slave Act. The Civil War ended most nullification efforts. In the 1950s, southern states attempted to use nullification and interposition to prevent integration of their schools. These attempts failed when the Supreme Court again rejected nullification in Cooper v. Aaron, explicitly holding that the states may not nullify federal law. Aubrey Vaughan quote below “The U. S. Congress has the authority to remove any issue from the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction. If so, then, the U. S. Supreme Court can be overruled by the people. The Tenth Amendment reserves the right of the States to nullify Federal Laws. The States granted limited power to the Federal Government. The U.S. Supreme Court has gone beyond their authority. Some where, at some time some one must stand up and establish the truth in the land again.”
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 04:59:59 +0000
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