Fight brewing in Kansas over gun-control nullification laws
By Rachel Weiner, WashPost, Updated: May 3, 2013
A fight is brewing in Kansas over the constitutionality of laws that aim to bar enforcement of federal gun-control measures.
In late April, the Kansas legislature passed and Gov. Sam Brownback (R) signed a law that blocks enforcement of any federal gun laws on guns produced and used within the state of Kansas. Under the law, “any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States which violates the second amendment to the constitution of the United States is null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas.”
Attorney General Eric Holder has written to Brownback that the law is unconstitutional and that the government “will take all appropriate action including litigation if necessary, to prevent the State of Kansas from interfering with the activities of federal officials enforcing federal law.”
Brownback replied that he stands by the law and that it has broad support in the state, from Democrats and Republicans. “The people of Kansas have clearly expressed their sovereign will,” he wrote Thursday. “It is my hope that upon further review, you will see their right to do so.” The state argues that because the law only applies to guns in the state of Kansas, it is not covered by the commerce clause of the Constitution giving Congress regulatory power.
(More here.)
A fight is brewing in Kansas over the constitutionality of laws that aim to bar enforcement of federal gun-control measures.
In late April, the Kansas legislature passed and Gov. Sam Brownback (R) signed a law that blocks enforcement of any federal gun laws on guns produced and used within the state of Kansas. Under the law, “any act, law, treaty, order, rule or regulation of the government of the United States which violates the second amendment to the constitution of the United States is null, void and unenforceable in the state of Kansas.”
Attorney General Eric Holder has written to Brownback that the law is unconstitutional and that the government “will take all appropriate action including litigation if necessary, to prevent the State of Kansas from interfering with the activities of federal officials enforcing federal law.”
Brownback replied that he stands by the law and that it has broad support in the state, from Democrats and Republicans. “The people of Kansas have clearly expressed their sovereign will,” he wrote Thursday. “It is my hope that upon further review, you will see their right to do so.” The state argues that because the law only applies to guns in the state of Kansas, it is not covered by the commerce clause of the Constitution giving Congress regulatory power.
(More here.)
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