Is It Constitutional for States to Say No to Obama Gun Proposals? - East Idaho News
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Is It Constitutional for States to Say No to Obama Gun Proposals?

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011613 ObamaSignsGunControl1?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1358508618335The White House(WASHINGTON) — Even before President Obama laid out his gun control proposals on Wednesday, calling on Congress to act as well as signing executive orders, several states responded by saying they would try to block the enforcement of any measures.

From the Mississippi governor to lawmakers in Texas, Missouri and Wyoming, even local sheriffs in Oregon and Kentucky, many of those who oppose the president’s proposal believe it is within their legal right to not only refuse to enforce federal legislation, but to make it a crime for a federal agent to try and enforce the law in their states.

But is that approach constitutional?

Theodore Ruger, a constitutional law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, says no.  The Supremacy Clause, which is part of the Constitution, ensures that.

“These state statutes are outrageously unenforceable,” Ruger said.  “They have no grounds and there has not been any grounds for 200 years for a state to criminalize the enforcement of a valid federal law.”

Ruger explains that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution says that “federal laws and treaties are the supreme law of the land and that has been interpreted to mean in case there is any conflict when Congress or the president speaks clearly and with valid authority on a topic, states cannot thwart the application of the law within its borders.”

Greg Magarian, a constitutional law professor from Washington University Law School, in St. Louis, agrees, saying, “If a state tries to legislate or take action contrary to federal law, the state is in violation of the Constitution and the Supremacy Clause.”

Ruger also believes the states are making these moves not because they don’t know what the law is, but simply to grandstand.

“These states all know this, so we can only see this as pure political rhetoric,” Ruger said.  “These states are savvy enough to know that they will not be able to enforce their state laws, so they are trying to make a rhetorical point as opposed to creating a valid law.”

Magarian calls it “pure political theater.”

“Conservative state officials all over the country want to make a show of not being oppressed by what they are portraying as a tyrannical federal government, and I think of it as, frankly, hyperbole,” Magarian said.

It’s more about not liking the president than anything else, he added.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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