Eleven North Carolina Republicans Sponsor Resolution Saying Their State Can Ignore The Constitution

[octoberlib]

The Constitution “does not grant the federal government and does not grant the federal courts the power to determine what is or is not constitutional” according to a resolution sponsored by North Carolina House Majority Leader Edgar Starnes (R) and ten of his fellow Republicans — a statement that puts them at odds with over 200 years of constitutional law.

This resolution is nothing less than an effort to repudiate the result of the Civil War. As the resolution correctly notes, the First Amendment merely provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” and, indeed, the Bill of Rights was originally understood to only place limits on the federal government. For the earliest years of the Republic, the Bill of Rights were not really “rights” at all, but were instead guidelines on which powers belonged to central authorities and which ones remained exclusively in the hands of state lawmakers.

One of the most important judicial projects of the Twentieth Century was a series of Supreme Court decisions applying most of the Bill of Rights’ limits to state governments. This project completed the work the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment began nearly 150 year ago — reconstructing America as a nation that recognizes certain civil rights which no lawmaker is allowed to trample. The right to be free from government endorsements of religion is one of these civil rights.

So when Starnes and his colleagues lash out against this one freedom, they are not simply lashing out against some court decisions that they disagree with. They are rejecting the most transformative moment in American constitutional history and denying that their side lost the Civil War.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/04/03/1815841/eleven-north-carolina-republicans-sponsor-resolution-saying-state-can-ignore-the-constitution/

Have they taken down the Confederate flag yet?

[still_one]

1. I would hope the msm is doing their job and reporting it

Many in the county do not realize that at least 25% of the Republican Party are fringe extremists

[Control-Z]

2. Crazy fucks.

Isn't thiis some kind of treason?

[longship]

3. Nope. Treason is also defined in the Constitution.

Article 3, Section 3:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

[RC]

4. The loss of Federal funds should wake them up.

That is all the Federal government need to threaten them with.

[barbtries]

6. it didn't stop them

from gutting unemployment.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

10. No, no it didn't.

Fuckers.

[CincyDem]

7. Why threaten, let 'em leave. lol

North Carolina is a "taker state", taking almost 82 billion a year more from the federal government than it contributes in federal taxes.

Let's take the 82 billion and pass it around. Send every man, woman, and child in the US (excluding North Carolina) $265/year to compensate them for the loss of The Biltmore and The Outer Banks. For $265/year, I'll deal with the loss. lol

[octoberlib]

8. North Carolina has had a Dem controlled legislature for the past 100 years

and a Dem Governor for the past 28. Only reason we have a Repub majority legislature now is because of gerrymandering(Dems won more votes). If NC has become a "taker" state , it's happened in the past 3 months.

[barbtries]

5. they just put it up at the capital

with intentions to keep it there for two years.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10692009

oh, yeah, the republicans are absolutely punch drunk with power in this state.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

9. Is this guy a patriot, or what?

http://edgarstarnes.com/

I feel like saluting and belting out My Country, 'Tis of Thee...

[octoberlib]

11. Haha!

[WorseBeforeBetter]

12. Here's the Panama Canal dude...

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/William_Brawley

Hmm, I'm noticing a pattern... and only in office since 2011!