Issue Position: States' Rights

Issue Position

When the founders established this nation, they formed a nation with both horizontal and vertical power structures. The horizontal being the relationship between the three equal but separate branches of the federal government and the vertical being the relationship shared between the federal and state governments and the people.

However, contrary to the way the federal government tends to work today, the prime authority was vested in the people, then the states and last the federal government all under the watchful eye of the public. In the Constitution, the US Congress is given a very limited scope of authority and through the 10th Amendment to the Constitution all powers not granted to the federal government were reserved to the states and the people.

The seemingly ongoing and unabated practice of the US Congress to pass legislation that goes beyond the scope of their constitutional authority in total disregard for 10th Amendment has no rightful basis. For that reason, I am a strong supporter of the work of the Tenth Amendment Center and many of their pieces of model legislation such as the Freedom from Registration Act to end the abridgement of the Second Amendment in North Carolina, the Defend the Guard Legislation to ensure that the Governor of North Carolina must approve the use of North Carolina's National Guard before they can be put on federal active duty, and the Federal Healthcare Nullification Act to repeal Obamacare.

In short, North Carolina has the right under the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution to keep the federal government in check and to refuse to follow federal laws which it deems in violation of the United States Constitution.

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