Full Text of SR0181 96th General Assembly
SR0181 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY
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| SENATE RESOLUTION
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| WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the | 3 |
| United States specifically provides that, "The powers not | 4 |
| delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor | 5 |
| prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States | 6 |
| respectively, or to the people"; and
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| WHEREAS, The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of | 8 |
| federal power as being those powers specifically granted to it | 9 |
| by the Constitution of the United States and nothing more; and
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| WHEREAS, Federalism is the constitutional division of | 11 |
| powers between the national and state governments and is widely | 12 |
| regarded as one of America's most valuable contributions to | 13 |
| political science; and
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| WHEREAS, James Madison, the "father of the Constitution", | 15 |
| said, "The powers delegated to the federal government are few | 16 |
| and defined. Those which are to remain in the state governments | 17 |
| are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised | 18 |
| principally on external objects, [such] as war, peace, | 19 |
| negotiation, and foreign commerce. ... The powers reserved to | 20 |
| the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the | 21 |
| ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and | 22 |
| properties of the people"; and
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| WHEREAS, Thomas Jefferson emphasized that the states are | 2 |
| not "subordinate" to the national government, but rather the | 3 |
| two are "coordinate departments of one simple and integral | 4 |
| whole. ... The one is the domestic, the other the foreign | 5 |
| branch of the same government"; and
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| WHEREAS, Alexander Hamilton expressed his hope that "the | 7 |
| people ... will always take care to preserve the constitutional | 8 |
| equilibrium between the general and the state governments." He | 9 |
| believed that "this balance between the national and state | 10 |
| governments ... forms a double security to the people. If one | 11 |
| [government] encroaches on their rights, they will find a | 12 |
| powerful protection in the other. Indeed, they will both be | 13 |
| prevented from overpassing their constitutional limits, by | 14 |
| [the] certain rivalship, which will ever subsist between them"; | 15 |
| and
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| WHEREAS, The scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment | 17 |
| means that the federal government was created by the states | 18 |
| specifically to be limited in its powers relative to those of | 19 |
| the various states; and
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| WHEREAS, Today, the states are demonstrably treated as | 21 |
| agents of the federal government;
many federal mandates are | 22 |
| directly in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the |
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| Constitution of the United States; and
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| WHEREAS, The United States Supreme Court has ruled in New | 3 |
| York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress | 4 |
| may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory | 5 |
| processes of the states; and | 6 |
| WHEREAS, A number of proposals from previous | 7 |
| administrations and some now being considered by the present | 8 |
| administration and from Congress may further violate the | 9 |
| Constitution of the United States; therefore, be it
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| RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL | 11 |
| ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we hereby claim | 12 |
| sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of | 13 |
| the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and | 14 |
| granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the | 15 |
| United States; and be it further
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| RESOLVED, That this resolution serve as a notice and demand | 17 |
| to the federal government to maintain the balance of powers | 18 |
| established by the Constitution of the United States and to | 19 |
| cease and desist, effective immediately, any and all mandates | 20 |
| that are beyond the scope of its constitutionally delegated | 21 |
| powers; and be it further |
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| RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be | 2 |
| presented to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the | 3 |
| United States, the President of the United States Senate, the | 4 |
| Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President pro | 5 |
| tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of | 6 |
| Representatives of each state's legislature in the United | 7 |
| States, and to each member of the Illinois congressional | 8 |
| delegation.
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