My Testimony FOR HB-117 (Obamacare Nullification)

Mr. Speaker, committee members.
The Constitution of the United States is a document that outlines the function of the Federal government and assigns specific powers to that government. The branches, are specifically limited in jurisdiction to these enumerated powers. The Tenth Amendment further amplifies the limitations of the Federal government when it says,

“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.”

This Amendment is often referred to as the, “States Rights Amendment”, it is much more than that; it is also the peoples rights Amendment. The phrase “or to the people,” must not be ignored!

When a law is made by the Federal government, in an area that is in conflict with the Constitution or in an area where Constitution is silent, the states must not remain silent. So often are they silent, a term was spawned to describe it; “Implied consent.” Implied consent is often a result of, implied or specific threats, by the Federal Government. However, even if a state is silent there is still the matter of “the people”, and their right to “The powers not delegated”. In this case if Idaho does not nullify this law and chooses to remain silent, according to the Tenth, “the people” can grasp the power. Alas this Constitutional power of the people is unlikely to stand in the face of the most powerful National government in the history of mankind; the US government. Alone a person acting in full accordance with The Constitution may be forced to conform.

Thomas Jefferson said in the Kentucky Resolution, “The states are duty bound to resist.” However, I would say the states are duty bound not to remain silent. The state of Idaho must either nullify this law or formally accept it, for silence serves only to place the people, that may act fully within their rights, according to the Tenth Amendment, in harms way.

Walt Holton