November 24, 2015
Government Nullification with an Ineligible President of the United States
A republic is a system of government which derives its power from the people. The Founders rejected a monarchy as a violation of the God given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to establish a representational form of government. The Constitution of the United States, ratified in 1789, created a federal republic that repealed and replaced the confederation of the states established after the Declaration Independence, July 4, 1776. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, ratified in 1783, was the first attempt at a republican form of government.
The original 13 British colonies became independent states after The American Revolution. Each of the independent states had a republican form of government with a governor elected by the people of each state as its executive officer. The republican form of government is one in which the powers of sovereignty are vested in the people and are exercised through representatives to whom the powers of sovereignty are delegated. "[A]t the Revolution, the sovereignty devolved on the people; and they are truly the sovereigns of the country, ...". See Chisholm v. Georgia (US) 2 Dall 419, 454, 1 L Ed 440, 455 @Dall (1793) pp 471-472. "The very meaning of 'sovereignty' is that the decree of the sovereign makes law." American Banana Co. v. United Fruit Co., 29 S.Ct. 511, 513, 213 U.S. 347, 53 L.Ed. 826, 19 Ann. Cas. 1047. A republican form of government is one in which the powers of sovereignty are vested in the people and are exercised by the people, either directly, or through representatives chosen by the people, to whom those powers are specially delegated. See In re Duncan, 139 U.S. 449, 11 S.Ct. 573, 35 L.Ed. 219; Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. (21 Wall.) 162, 22 L.Ed. 627. Black's Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, p. 626. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence. Article IV, §4, U.S. Const.
The People may amend or abolish the U.S. Constitution in times of unhappiness at the ballot box. The "fundamental principle of republican government, which admits the right of the people to alter or abolish the established Constitution, whenever they find it inconsistent with their happiness ...," Publius [Alexander Hamilton], The Federalist No. 78, June 14, 1788. "Until the people have, by some solemn and authoritative act, annulled or changed the established form, it is binding upon themselves collectively, as well as individually; and no presumption, or even knowledge, of their sentiments, can warrant their representatives in a departure from it, prior to such an act." All federal and state judges, all federal and state legislatures, and all federal and state executive branch officers are bound by oath to support the U.S. Constitution pursuant to Article VI.
The Supreme Court of the United States has opined the Constitution was established directly by the people of the United States and not by the states. Chief Justice John Jay opined, "[The people] made a Confederation of the States the basis of a general government [i.e. the Articles of Confederation]. Experience disappointed the expectations they had formed from it, and then the people, in their collective and national capacity, established the present Constitution. It is remarkable that, in establishing it, the people exercised their own rights, and their own proper sovereignty, and, conscious of the plenitude of it, they declared with becoming dignity, 'We the people of the United States, do ordain and establish this Constitution.' Here we see the people acting as sovereigns of the whole country, and, in the language of sovereignty, establishing a Constitution by which it was their will that the State governments should be bound, and to which the State Constitutions should be made to conform. Every State Constitution is a compact made by and between the citizens of a State to govern themselves in a certain manner, and the Constitution of the United States is likewise a compact made by the people of the United States to govern themselves as to general objects in a certain manner." See Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 U.S. (2 Dall.) 419 (1793).
The Supreme Court has rejected to idea that the Constitution is a compact between the States, stating, "The Constitution of the United States was ordained and established not by the States in their sovereign capacities, but emphatically, as the preamble of the Constitution declares, by 'the people of the United States.' . . . The Constitution was for a new Government, organized with new substantive powers, and not a mere supplementary charter to a Government already existing. The Confederation was a compact between States, and its structure and powers were wholly unlike those of the National Government. The Constitution was an act of the people of the United States to supersede the Confederation, and not to be ingrafted on it, as a stock through which it was to receive life and nourishment." See Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 14 U.S. (1 Wheat.) 304 (1816).
The Constitution is binding on the States and cannot be negated by the States. The Supreme Court opined, "The government proceeds directly from the people; is 'ordained and established' in the name of the people, and is declared to be ordained, 'in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and to their posterity.' ... It required not the affirmance, and could not be negatived, by the State Governments. The Constitution, when thus adopted, was of complete obligation, and bound the State sovereignties." See McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316 (1819).
In a constitutional republic, no government is sovereign. The sovereign delegates authority to the government and grants sovereign immunity to the government. The sovereign must retain its power to restrain the government the People have created to form a more perfect union. The People are the final authority on the interpretation of US law. The People are omnipotent and answer only to God. Nullification of unconstitutional acts perpetuated by the US federal government can only be accomplished by the People at the ballot box in a national referendum.