00                      SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 20                                                                    
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 the scope of power defined by the Tenth Amendment means that the                                        
09 federal government was created by the states specifically to be an agent of the states; and                             
10       WHEREAS some federal actions weaken states' rights protected by the Tenth                                       
11 Amendment to the Constitution of the United States; and                                                                 
12       WHEREAS the Tenth Amendment assures that we, the people of the United States of                                 
13 America and each sovereign state in the Union of States, now have, and have always had,                                 
14 rights the federal government may not usurp; and                                                                        
15       WHEREAS art. IV, sec. 4, Constitution of the United States, reads, "The United                                  
16 States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government," and                               

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