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HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 14
INTRODUCED BY M. MORE
A JOINT RESOLUTION OF THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MONTANA ARTICULATING THE RIGHTS OF THE STATE OF MONTANA AND OF THE SEVERAL STATES OF THE UNITED STATES.
WHEREAS, the Constitution of the State of Montana declares and secures that the people of this state have the sole and exclusive right to govern themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent state; and
WHEREAS, that right may never be delegated to the United States; and
WHEREAS, the Montana Constitution documents that in 1889 the people of Montana agreed to form a free, sovereign, and independent body politic, or state, by the name of "The State of Montana"; and
WHEREAS, the people of the State of Montana agree that all powers not expressly delegated to the federal government in the United States Constitution must be reserved to and exercised by individual states; and
WHEREAS, when Montana entered into statehood in 1889, that entrance was accomplished by a contract between Montana and the several states, with Congress and the President concurring and acting as the agent for the several states--that contract is known as the "Compact With the United States", archived as Article I of the Montana Constitution; and
WHEREAS, the sovereignty of those individual tribal governments of American Indians currently existing within the State of Montana is likewise guaranteed by that same Compact With the United States; and
WHEREAS, a contract, compact, or treaty must be implemented consistent with the terms and understandings in place at the time it was entered into; and
WHEREAS, the protection of these states' rights is enumerated in amendments to the United States Constitution, which state that "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"; and
WHEREAS, this resolution follows and expands into principle the position Montana established in its 60th legislative session when it rejected the federally mandated "Real ID" and again in its 61st legislative session when it adopted the Montana Firearms Freedom Act to counter and preclude unwarranted assumptions of this state's rights that the people of Montana have reserved to themselves in the Montana Constitution.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF Montana:
(1) That the several states of the United States are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to general government, but by ratifying the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights the several states constituted a general government for specific purposes and delegated to that government certain definite powers, while reserving all other rights.
(2) That those definite powers were enumerated in Article I, section 8, of the United States Constitution and were intended to be narrowly construed.
(3) That when the general government assumes undelegated powers, it acts in excess of its authority.
(4) That the government created by the United States Constitution was not granted the authority to determine the extent of the powers delegated to itself because such a grant of authority would have made the discretion of Congress and not the United States Constitution, and the limitations contained in the Constitution, the measure of Congress's powers.
(5) That the power of the federal government over individual liberties is restricted and the power is reserved by the states to determine whether liberties may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom and how far those abuses that cannot be separated from their use should be tolerated, rather than allowing the use to be destroyed.
(6) That states retain the right of protecting all freedoms of individual persons from federal incursion.
(7) That any acts of Congress that abridge protected individual freedoms are not law and are void.
(8) That excessive exercise of those parts of the United States Constitution by the federal government that delegate to Congress a power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States" and "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper" to regulate "commerce among the states" or that declare federal laws to be ultimately supreme has served to destroy the limits of power imposed on Congress by its creators, the several states.
(9) That those powers given to Congress in the United States Constitution detailed above have been amended, modified, and limited by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
(10) That if Montana accepts these inappropriate applications of power and continues to allow Congress to exercise unbridled authority, it would be surrendering its own form of government, its sovereign power, and its responsibility to its citizens.
(11) That the people of this state will not accept undelegated and consequently unlimited powers assumed by the federal government.
(12) That every state has a right to ignore or reject all unwarranted assumptions of power by other entities within its boundaries and that without this right, states and sovereign tribes would become mere administrative subdivisions of their intended servant, the federal government that the states created.
(13) That this state calls on the other several states for an expression of their sentiments on acts of the federal government not authorized by the United States Constitution.
(14) That the rights and liberties of Montana, its tribal governments, and Montana citizens and of the other several states must be protected from any dangers by declaring that Congress is limited by the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
(15) That any act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States, or Judicial Order of the United States that assumes a power not delegated by the United States Constitution and diminishes the liberty of this State or its citizens constitutes a breach of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights by the government of the United States, which would also breach Montana's "Compact With the United States". Acts that would cause such a breach include but are not limited to:
(a) establishing martial law or a state of emergency within a state without the consent of the state;
(b) moving federal military personnel or units into a state without the consent of the state or with the intent to enforce federal laws or to assert the supremacy of the federal government;
(c) requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war or pursuant to or as an alternative to incarceration after due process of law;
(d) requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 years, other than pursuant to or as an alternative to incarceration after due process of law; or
(e) surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government.
(16) That if any act of Congress becomes law or if an Executive Order of the President of the United States is put into force beyond the reservations expressed in this resolution, or if any treaty is entered into by the federal government that nullifies the rights of the people of Montana as expressed in the United States or Montana Constitutions, Montana's "Compact With the United States" may be considered breached and all powers previously delegated to the United States via the United States Constitution revert to the states individually.
(17) That any future federal government of the United States shall require ratification of three-fourths of the states seeking to form a federal government and shall not be binding upon any state not seeking to form or join a federal government.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Secretary of State send a copy of this resolution to the President of the United States, to each member of the United States Congress, and to the Secretary of State of each of the other several states and territories of the United States.
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