This Could Get Very Interesting

WND reported yesterday that lawmakers in North Dakota are proposing a law allowing the state to ignore presidential executive orders if they don’t meet constitutional muster. Actually all states should do that!

The Tenth Amendment states:

Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.

The article reports:

House Bill 1164, introduced for the 2021 session, says the “legislative management may review any executive order issued by the president of the United States which has not been affirmed by a vote of the Congress of the United States and signed into law as prescribed by the Constitution of the United States and recommend to the attorney general and the governor that the executive order be further reviewed.”

It also allows for a review of an executive order by the attorney general “to determine the constitutionality of the order and whether the state should seek an exemption from the application of the order or seek to have the order declared to be an unconstitutional exercise of legislative authority by the president.”

It states that “political subdivision” can implement such an order “that restricts a person’s rights or that the attorney general determines to be unconstitutional under subsection 1 and which relates to: a. pandemics or other health emergencies; b. the regulation of natural resources, including coal and oil; c. the regulation of the agriculture industry; d. the use of land; 3. The regulation of the financial sector… or; f. the regulation of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”

The article mentions that a bill has also been introduced to deal with unconstitutional laws passed by Congress. The article also notes that South Dakota lawmakers are working on a similar law.

If these laws are passed, I suspect that other states with Republican legislatures might pass similar laws. If that occurs, we will again see a divide between the prosperity of states run by Republicans and states run by Democrats–a divide we have seen during the coronavirus epidemic and how it was handled in various states.