[Vision2020] Idaho Bill Challenges Federal Law

[Tom Hansen]

The Idagoons are at it again, V-peeps.

Courtesy of today's (March 7, 2010) Spokesman-Review.

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Bill challenges federal law
Idaho lawmakers hope to force courts to restrict commerce clause
Betsy Z. Russell, The Spokesman-Review

BOISE – Idaho lawmakers are gearing up to declare guns and ammunition made
in the state exempt from all federal laws, including registration.

“This is automatically going to end up in a court case, that was the
object of this bill,” said the measure’s lead sponsor, Rep. Dick Harwood,
R-St. Maries. “It’s not to control guns, it’s not to do anything, it’s to
change. 
 To tell the state of Idaho we can run our own commerce, that’s
what this bill is about.”

The measure is designed to match a “firearms freedom” bill already passed
in Montana – and already the subject of a federal court case – along with
pending measures in nearly two dozen other states. The idea: To force a
more narrow reading of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution by the
Supreme Court, by suggesting that the use of guns not sold across state
lines isn’t interstate commerce and therefore can’t be regulated at the
federal level.

Harwood’s bill raised legal questions when he unveiled it. At a committee
hearing last week, another lawmaker distributed an Idaho attorney
general’s opinion showing the bill was “likely unconstitutional.”

“An attempt to nullify federal statutes is beyond the power of the Idaho
Legislature,” the opinion found.

But Harwood said that’s not the point. “Y’know, the supreme law of the
land sometimes is maybe not always right,” he said. “There was a
prohibition law and that was not right. 
 They ended up turning around and
saying, well, what we did there was wrong.” He also cited slavery, saying,
“We all know that’s wrong. That didn’t get overturned until the people
went back and said this is wrong. You have to push the envelope. 
 That’s
what this bill is doing.”

Harwood brought Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane to the House State
Affairs Committee to explain the law at a second hearing. Kane said the
bill likely is unconstitutional under current case law, and the attorney
general’s office is bound by that. But, he said, if the Legislature wants
to set up a court fight over how the commerce clause should be
interpreted, that’s up to lawmakers.

“That’s not a legal question to answer; that is a policy question for this
Legislature,” Kane said. The bill, he said, does raise issues that “most
likely will need to be resolved by a court of competent jurisdiction.”

Rep. Phil Hart, R-Athol, said, “We want to take this to court, we want to
create a controversy, and that’s where we’re headed with this. And Idaho
will be part of a grander scheme.” The bill then was approved on a voice
vote, with just two “no” votes, and sent to the full House, which likely
will debate it this week.

Hart said several private legal groups want to take on the court fight, so
it wouldn’t cost the state anything. But Kane said the attorney general’s
office has a constitutional obligation to defend state laws, so if the law
passes, it’ll defend it.

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House Bill 589
(PDF format, 52 kilobytes)

http://www.MoscowCares.com/Idaho/2010/HB589_IdahoFirearms.pdf

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So . . .

If a firearm is manufactured and sold in the state of Idaho, and taken to
some out-of-state locale where it is used in a series of robberies and
murders, there is no way of tracking ownership of this weapon.

All this while the Aryan Nations racist pigs are making their reappearance
in the inland northwest.

Heck!  I don't know about you, but I feel a whole lot safer.

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown