A Proposed State Sovereignty Resolution (“A Re-Declaration of Independence”) for North Carolina | Eastern North Carolina Now

    WHEREAS, the relationship has been further eroded by the dependence that States have on the federal government for funding;

    WHEREAS, the Supreme Court has upheld the notion that the government "has the power to fix the terms upon which its money allotments to states shall be disbursed" (South Dakota v. Dole, 1987) and therefore has upheld its conditioned funds to the states as permissible (as a matter of contract law);

    WHEREAS, with the blessing of the Supreme Court, the government can achieve through conditioned spending that which it cannot achieve constitutionally, thereby allowing it to do an end-run on the Constitution and to avoid its limitations under the Tenth Amendment;

    WHEREAS, the federal government has made itself the exclusive and final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself, and as such, its need for power and its discretion - and not the Constitution - have been guiding those decisions.

    WHEREAS, the federal government has created for itself an absolute monopoly over the nature and scope of its powers and has consistently assumed powers it wasn't meant to have - misappropriating them from the States and from the People;

    WHEREAS, the federal government has used said monopoly to change the nature of the Constitution, to redefine its terms, and to re-establish boundaries of government on the individual without using the lawful route, Article V;

    WHEREAS, the particular security of the people is in the possession of a written and stable Constitution. The branches of the federal government, acting in unison rather than apprehension, have made it a blank piece of paper by construction;

    WHEREAS, the government, once populated by representatives who were primarily beholden to the interests of the people and the States, is now populated by representatives who are primarily beholden to the interests of the government;

    WHEREAS, through the consolidation and concerted action of its branches and said monopoly, the federal government has transformed itself into a strongly centralized, bloated national government, vested with illegitimate powers and barely recognizable as the government intended by our creators and adopted by the States in the years of our founding. This bloated central government is coercive, wasteful, corrupt, and out of touch with the People. Less than one quarter of the people trust it, most are afraid of it, and those who are required to support it by paying federal income taxes believe they are paying too much and question the legitimacy of the purposes for which it taxes and spends. Most importantly, the government is one that poses serious threats to the exercise of the freedoms that Americans are deemed to be endowed with;

    WHEREAS, the direct consequence of a government that has enlarged its powers and functions is that it requires a larger budget and therefore has to tax its citizens more;

    WHEREAS, with respect to federal grants and other forms of funding, if the government's budget includes funds to "bribe" the states and otherwise attempt to influence state policy or planning, then it clearly overtaxes its citizens. Bribing the states or otherwise paying for any of its internal functions or projects is not one of the objects for which Congress can tax and spend under the Constitution, even if said bribe is cloaked in contract terms. The states are so financially strapped that there is effectively no "choice" involved in accepting grants of funding from the federal government and essentially, the offer amounts to an act of coercion. The government is absolutely forbidden to coerce a state government or its agents;

    WHEREAS, the power to prevent the further consolidation of powers in the central government and the right of judging on infractions of inherent powers is a fundamental attribute of sovereignty which cannot be denied to the States, and therefore they must be allowed to do so;

    WHEREAS, North Carolina has an inherent right and a national duty to exercise its sovereign power under the Tenth Amendment, to take back any and all sovereign power that has been hijacked or usurped from it by the federal government for the past 200 years or more, to assume its vital obligation under our system of checks and balances, and to review acts of the federal government for constitutionality and to place legal checks on its abuse;

    THEREFORE, to that end, North Carolina is asserting, or re-asserting, its sovereignty. It will no longer tolerate the abusive acts, policies, executive orders, unconstitutional rulings by federal courts, etc by the federal government. The future of our republic, the integrity of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, and indeed the continued security of liberty, depends on North Carolina doing so.



AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA:
    (1) That the several States of the United States are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to general government, but by ratifying the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights, they constituted a general government for special purposes and delegated to that government certain definite powers, while reserving all other rights.

    (2) That when the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are void and of no force.

    (3) That the government created by the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights was not granted the right to determine the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its discretion, and not the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights, the measure of its powers.

    (4) That the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting of the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies, felonies committed on the high seas, offenses against the law of nations, slavery, and no other crimes.

    (5) That all acts of Congress that assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those enumerated in the federal constitution and Bill of Rights, are void and of no force.

    (6) That the power to create, define, and punish other crimes is reserved by the States.

    (7) That power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press remains and is reserved by the States or the people, allowing States the right to judge how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom and how far those abuses, which cannot be separated from their use, should be tolerated, rather than allowing the use to be destroyed.

    (8) That States are guarded against all abridgment by the United States of the freedom of religious opinions and exercises and retain the right of protecting the same.

    (9) That all acts of the US Congress that abridge freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press are not law and are void.

    (10) That power over the freedom of the right to keep and bear arms was reserved to the States and to the people, allowing states the right to judge how far infringements on the right to bear arms should be tolerated, rather than allowing that exercise to be defined by Congress.

    (11) That States and the people are guarded against all abridgment by the United States of the right to keep and bear arms and retain the right of protecting that right.

    (12) That all acts of Congress that abridge the right to bear arms are not law and are void.

    (13) That right and power to determine morality and social progressivism is reserved by the States or the people under its historic "police powers," allowing States the right to judge how fast to change the character of their society

    (14) That Congress's interpretation of those parts of the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights that delegate to Congress a power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States" and "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof" has attempted to destroy the limits of its power.


    (15) That those parts of the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights, detailed in subsection (14), must not be construed to give unlimited powers to the federal government, and that Congress's inappropriate interpretation must be revised and corrected.

    (16) That if North Carolina accepts these inappropriate interpretations and continues to allow Congress to exercise unbridled authority, it would be surrendering its own form of government.

    (17) That the people of this State will not submit to undelegated and consequently unlimited powers.

    (18) That every State has a right to nullify all assumptions of power by others within their limits, and that without this right, States would be under the dominion and power of anyone who might try to exercise that power.

    (19) That it would be a dangerous delusion to silence people's fears for the safety of their rights.

    (20) That North Carolina calls on its co-States for an expression of their sentiments on acts not authorized by the United States Constitution.

    (21) That the rights and liberties of North Carolina and its co-States must be protected from any dangers by declaring that Congress is limited by the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights.

    (22) That any act by the Congress of the United States, any federal policy, any Executive Order of the President of the United States, or any Judicial Order of the United States that assumes a power not delegated by the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights diminishing the liberty of this state or its citizens constitutes a nullification of the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights by the government of the United States, which would also breach North Carolina's compact with its fellow States. Acts that would cause a nullification and a breach include but are not limited to:

    (a) establishing martial law or a state of emergency within a state without the consent of the legislature of that State;

    (b) requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war or pursuant to or as an alternative to incarceration after due process of law;

    (c) requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 other than pursuant to or as an alternative to incarceration after due process of law;

    (d) surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government;

    (e) any act regarding religion, further limitations on freedom of political speech, or further limitations on freedom of the press; or

    (f) any act regarding the right to keep and bear arms or further limitations on the right to bear arms, including any restrictions on the type or number of firearms or the amount or type of ammunition any law-abiding citizen may purchase, own, or possess.

    (22) That if any act of Congress becomes law or if an Executive Order or Judicial Order is put into force related to the reservations expressed in this resolution, North Carolina's compact with its fellow States is breached and all powers previously delegated to the United States by the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights revert to the States individually.

    (23) That any future government of the United States shall require ratification of three-fourths of the states seeking to form a government and shall not be binding upon any state not seeking to form a government.

    (24) That the Secretary of State send copies of this resolution to the President of the United States and to each member of the United States Congress.

    References:


    Diane Rufino, "A RE-DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE," January 2021.

    Diane Rufino, "State Escrow Accounts to Curb Federal Spending," November 8, 2015.

    Diane Rufino, "NULLIFICATION: The Rightful Remedy to Curb Federal Spending," November 8, 2015.

    Montana House Joint Resolution No. 26 Affirming States' Rights

    Montana House Joint Resolution No. 26 Affirming States' Rights

    Mecklenburg Resolves (May 20, 1775)

    Text of The Treaty of Paris (1783), from Our Documents website

    Mecklenburg Resolves, Wikipedia.

    Ginny Orvedahl, "First in Freedom," NCPedia.org, 2006. From ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NORTH CAROLINA edited by William S. Powell. Copyright © 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.org.

    Hugh T. Lefler and William S. Powell, Colonial North Carolina: A History (1973).

    Powell, North Carolina through Four Centuries (1989).

    Connor, R. D. W. History of North Carolina. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co. 1919.

    Connor, R. D. W. "John Harvey" The North Carolina Booklet 8. Number 1. July 1908. p. 3-42.