When are Federal Laws Supreme?
When they’re made in pursuance of the delegated powers of the Constitution. And that’s all!
Sometimes, the most convincing argument for an idea comes from its opponents. This was the case when Representative Metcalfe and Representative Fabrizio debated an amendment to House Resolution 49 in the PA House State Government committee on Tuesday.
HR49 is a Tenth Amendment Resolution in the PA House of Representatives. It claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment and serves notice for the federal government to cease and desist from certain mandates. The amendment under consideration by the committee was to remove a part the text, which reads,
“WHEREAS, Many Federal laws are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States;”
The proponents of this amendment couldn’t seem to think of a single federal law which might violate the Constitution, so they wanted to remove that text from the resolution. One of the justifications for this removal came from Representative Fabrizio. He suggested that the Supremacy Clause, in clause 2 of Article 6 of the US Constitution, requires that these words be removed.
Harold
