Like Stephan Kinsella and other people associated with the Mises Institute, I favor decentralization as much as possible. Yet, I am not sure about these state sovereignty resolutions. A typical one reads:

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the House of Representatives and the Senate of the ___________ legislature: that the State of ________ 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 Constitution of the United States.

We already have the Tenth Amendment, which seems very clear:

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.

Since the federal government just ignores the Tenth Amendment, which is part of the federal Constitution, what makes anyone think that the federal government will pay any attention to a state resolution?

The Best of Laurence M. Vance