00        SENATE CS FOR CS FOR HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 27(2d RES)                                                      
01 Relating to sovereign powers of the state.                                                                              
02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
03       WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads,                                     
04 "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the                         
05 States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people"; and                                                 
06       WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being                                   
07 that specifically granted by the Constitution of the United States and no more; and                                     
08       WHEREAS some federal actions weaken states' rights protected by the Tenth                                       
09 Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and                                                                 
10       WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of the United States of                                 
11 America and each sovereign state in the Union of States, now have, and have always had,                                 
12 rights the federal government may not usurp; and                                                                        
13       WHEREAS art. IV, sec. 4, Constitution of the United States, reads, "The United                                  
14 States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government," and                               
15 the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States reads, "The enumeration in the                             
16 Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by                         
17 the people"; and                                                                                                        

01       WHEREAS the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New York v. United States,                                 
02 112 S.Ct. 2408 (1992), that the United States Congress may not simply commandeer the                                    
03 legislative and regulatory processes of the states; and                                                                 
04       WHEREAS all states, including Alaska, find themselves regularly facing proposals                                
05 from the United States Congress that weaken states' rights protected by the Tenth                                       
06 Amendment;                                                                                                              
07       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature hereby claims sovereignty for                                  
08 the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers                            
09 not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the                               
10 United States; and be it                                                                                                
11       FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution serves as Notice and Demand to the                                        
12 federal government to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the                             
13 scope of these constitutionally delegated powers.                                                                       
14       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of                             
15 the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and                          
16 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of                                  
17 Representatives; the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S.                                       
18 Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska                                       
19 delegation in Congress; all other members of the 111th United States Congress; the presiding                            
20 officers of the legislatures of each of the other 49 states; and the governors of each of the                           
21 other 49 states.