Nullification spreading — how about ensuring privacy in CA?

by CalWatchdog Staff | June 23, 2013 1:04 am

[1]June 23, 2013

By John Seiler

Some good news: Nullification is spreading. AP reports:

“JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Imagine the scenario: A federal agent attempts to arrest someone for illegally selling a machine gun. Instead, the federal agent is arrested – charged in a state court with the crime of enforcing federal gun laws.

“Farfetched? Not as much as you might think.

“The scenario would become conceivable if legislation passed by Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature is signed into law by Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon.

“The Missouri legislation is perhaps the most extreme example of a states’ rights movement that has been spreading across the nation. States are increasingly adopting laws that purport to nullify federal laws – setting up intentional legal conflicts, directing local police not to enforce federal laws and, in rare cases, even threatening criminal charges for federal agents who dare to do their jobs.

“An Associated Press analysis found that about four-fifths of the states now have enacted local laws that directly reject or ignore federal laws on marijuana use, gun control, health insurance requirements and identification standards for driver’s licenses. The recent trend began in Democratic leaning California with a 1996 medical marijuana law and has proliferated lately in Republican strongholds like Kansas, where Gov. Sam Brownback this spring became the first to sign a measure threatening felony charges against federal agents who enforce certain firearms laws in his state.”

Right on! And I’m proud that left-wing California took the lead in nullification with Proposition 215,[2] way back 17 years ago.

Now, there’s more our state could do. Here are the very first words of the California Constitution[3]:

“ARTICLE 1 DECLARATION OF RIGHTS

“SECTION 1. All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights. Among these are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy.”

Note the last word: “privacy.”

As everyone has been learning from the recent scandals, the U.S. government has been spying on all of us continually, in complete violation of the Bill of Rights. What the California Legislature should do is pass a law implementing the “inalienable right” to “privacy” in our state by banning our high tech companies — Apple, Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. — from cooperating with the U.S. government unless the Fourth Amendment is strictly followed. That amendment mandates:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

And the state law should specify that the last words, “particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized,” ban the NSA, FBI and other Stasi Super Snooper State agencies from grabbing any Big Data, such as all phone and other records from Verizon, Google, etc.

And the law should specify that, if the NSA, FBI, etc. do not comply, then the California Highway Patrol and the California National Guard will arrest the police-state Stasi offenders and prosecute them under our state laws.

Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2013/06/23/nullification-spreading-how-about-ensuring-privacy-in-ca/

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