[Vision2020] Nullification Bill Introduced, With Concerns

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of today's (January 27, 2011) Spokesman-Review.

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Nullification bill introduced, with concerns

BOISE – If Idaho lawmakers can’t nullify the federal health care reform
law in their state, “then we might as well just get rubber stamps,”
freshman Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, declared Wednesday.

Barbieri persuaded the House State Affairs Committee to introduce his
nullification bill on a straight party-line vote, with all 15 Republicans
on the panel voting in favor and all four Democrats voting against. But
several committee members said they had serious concerns about the bill.

“Are you 
 aware that no court in the history of the United States has
ever upheld a state effort to nullify a federal law?” Rep. Elfreda
Higgins, D-Garden City, asked Barbieri.

He responded that he was aware.

“The difficulty is that the federal courts are an arm of the federal
government,” he said, “so it would be very difficult to imagine an arm of
the federal government ruling against itself.”

Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, an attorney, said he’d vote to introduce the
bill to allow a full hearing, but said he’s “troubled about the concept of
nullification.” He said the bill could undermine the state’s lawsuit
challenging the constitutionality of health care reform, a move he backed.

Barbieri, a California-licensed attorney who’s never been a member of the
Idaho Bar, said, “The question becomes, is the Legislature going to become
a rubber stamp of everything that the government decides to do, or is the
Legislature going to be able to interpose between onerous laws that the
federal government decides to implement and its citizens? That’s the
question before us.”

Asked about an Idaho attorney general’s decision that said nullification
bills like his would violate both the state and federal constitutions and
lawmakers’ oath of office, Barbieri said he’d read it, but couldn’t
summarize it because “it’s a 3  1/2 page kind of rambling.”

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State Rep. Vito Barbieri
(kinda reminds me of someone who lives here in Moscow)

http://media.spokesman.com/photos/2011/01/27/27_Idaho_nullification_t620.jpg

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Listen to yesterday's discussion and vote, concerning this issue, from the
House State Affairs Committee, and read the resulting House bill at:

http://moscowcares.com/idaho/2011/HB0059_012611.htm

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