Idaho: First in Nation to Approve Nullification
For Immediate Release: February 17, 2011
First in the Nation: Idaho House Approves Health Care Nullification Act
In an historic vote, the Idaho House passed a bill that would nullify the sweeping federal health care act passed by Congress last year.
House Bill 117 declares the health care bill unconstitutional and prohibits the enforcement of any provisions of the act in the state of Idaho. The bill reads in part:
The state of Idaho hereby exercises its sovereign power to declare the public policy of the state of Idaho regarding the right of all persons residing in the state of Idaho in choosing the mode of securing health care services free from the imposition of penalties, or the threat thereof, by the federal government of the United States of America relating thereto.
The bill overwhelmingly passed the House by a vote of 49-20, and will now move on to the Senate.
The Tenth Amendment Center authored the model legislation upon which the Idaho nullification bill was based. TAC executive director Michael Boldin said he was thrilled that the bill took another step toward final passage.
“This nation was founded on a belief that a handful of people should never tell millions how to live their lives,” he said. “Today, the state of Idaho took a bold step in standing up for the principle that ‘we the people’ are ultimately in charge, not the judges, the lobbyists, the bureaucrats, or the politicians in Washington D.C.”
Nullification rests on the philosophical foundation laid by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson when opposing the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. Madison wrote in the Virginia Resolution of that year:
“…in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact (the Constitution), the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.”
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The Tenth Amendment Center exists to promote and advance a return to a proper balance of power between federal and State governments envisioned by our founders, prescribed by the Constitution and explicitly declared in the Tenth Amendment. A national think tank based in Los Angeles, the Tenth Amendment Center works to preserve and protect the principle of strictly limited government through information, education, and activism.
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