SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION No. 8

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

INTRODUCED JANUARY 18, 1996

 

 

By Senator SCOTT

 

 

A Joint Resolution declaring the sovereignty of this State under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted by that Constitution to the federal government.

 

Whereas, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads as follows: "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"; and

Whereas, The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that specifically granted by the United States Constitution and no more; and

Whereas, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and

Whereas, State authority has been eroded primarily by four developments: (1) federal assumption of powers reserved to the states under the tenth amendment; (2) interpretations of the "commerce clause" of article I, section 8, clause 3 of the United States Constitution, which go beyond any reasonable conception of that clause, and in effect authorize federal pre-emption with respect to any issue for which some faint or circuitous connection can be made to interstate commerce; (3) the threat of withholding, withdrawing, or diverting federal funds to coerce compliance with federal policies; and (4) failure on the part of the states to challenge federal intrusions. Indeed, state governments have endorsed federal usurpation by seeking additional federal funding and by accepting federal delegations of power; and

Whereas, Today, the states are demonstrably treated as agents of the federal government; and

Whereas, Many federal mandates are directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and

Whereas, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States, 112 S.Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and

Whereas, The number of unfunded federal mandates imposed upon the states by the Congress of the United States has alarmingly increased in recent years; and

Whereas, This continuing imposition places New Jersey and her sister states in the precarious position of either attempting tofund the federal requirements with diminishing amounts of available revenue or jeopardizing eligibility for certain federal funds; and

Whereas, The states and the Congress of the United States should engage in earnest discussions regarding the difficult posture in which the states have been cast and the urgent necessity of the states to receive monetary assistance for these mandates or relief from the enforcement of these unfunded decrees; and

Whereas, A number of proposals from previous federal administrations, and some now pending from the present Administration and from Congress, may further violate the Tenth Amendment; now, therefore,

 

    Be It Resolved by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

 

    1. The State of New Jersey hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the United States Constitution.

 

    2. This resolution constitutes notice and demand upon the federal government, as agent of this State and the several other states, to cease and desist, effective immediately, the imposition upon the states of mandates that are beyond the scope of the federal government's constitutionally delegated powers.

 

    3. Duly authenticated copies of this resolution shall be sent to the President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, the presiding officers in each House of the legislatures of the other states of the United States, and every member of the United States Congress elected from this State.

 

    4. This joint resolution shall take effect immediately.

 

 

STATEMENT

 

    This joint resolution declares the sovereignty of this State under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted under the Constitution to the federal government. The resolution states that it is to serve as notice and demand upon the federal government immediately to cease and desist imposing mandates that are beyond the scope of the federal government's constitutionally delegated powers.

 

 

                             

Declares sovereignty of New Jersey under Tenth Amendment to U.S. Constitution over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted by Constitution to the federal government.