How We Hope To Take Back The Power

The key to Taking Back The Power which the federal government ("FedGov") has unconstitutionally taken from the states is to make the state governments, primarily legislators, realize that it is their right and responsibility to rein in an unconstitutional FedGov. We seek to make state governments understand:

The States are the boss of FedGov. FedGov was created by the States to serve them.
The Constitution contains the rules for the operation of FedGov.
The rules for the operation of FedGov were written by the States.
If there's a question as to what the rules mean, it's up to the boss, not the hired help, to say what those rules mean!
When FedGov oversteps its authority, the boss needs to take corrective action.
The states need to overturn FedGov actions which exceed the authority granted to FedGov by the states in the Constitution.
- The powers of the U.S. Supreme Court are listed in Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution. Nowhere in Article III, Section 2 is the federal Judiciary empowered to judge the constitutionality of laws and regulations.
- The Constitution does not prohibit the states from exercising this power — judging the constitutionality of federal enactments. In fact, nowhere in the constitution is the judging of laws to be constitutional or not even addressed.
- Amendment X of the Constitution states: "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."
- Accordingly, if we are to believe Amendment X of the Constitution, the power to determine whether federal enactments are constitutional or not is a power "reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
- COGA is the means by which this Reserved Power, currently being unconstitutionally exercised by the federal judiciary, can be returned to the States and the People.

We envision model legislation, to be introduced into each state's legislature, to rein in FedGov one state at a time. The working title of this bill is COGA — the Consent Of the Governed Act.

COGA will declare that the state enacting it will decide by whatever means it may choose, that any given FedGov act, statute or regulation is unconstitutional and not enforceable within its borders.

"Whoa!" you say. "You can't just go ignoring laws willy-nilly. That would be anarchy!" To which we would respond: "But we ought to ignore Not-Laws, shouldn't we?"

The reasoning here is simple. Unconstitutional laws are not laws at all.

COGA treats suspected unconstitutional laws as if they were unratified Constitutional amendments. No state is bound to honor unratified Constitutional amendments, no state should permit enforcement of suspected unconstitutional laws.

The current paradigm requires suspect laws to be challenged through the federal courts via lawsuits. Let us not forget that judicial proceedings are adversarial in nature. It is not fair to permit one adversary, FedGov, to decide the outcome of the contest! In the case of "United States v. [Your Name]," do you think it's fair that "United States" gets to determine the outcome? COGA puts the power in the hands of the states and the people where it belongs.

More About COGA