Mississippi bill aims to 'neutralize' some federal laws and protect 'sovereignty'

Two legislators in Mississippi are tired of what they claim is the federal government's overreach on states' rights -- and want to take legislative action to stop it.

House Bill 490 seeks to nullify federal laws “outside the scope of the powers delegated by the people to the federal government in the United States Constitution" and that the state repudiates "this unauthorized and excessive abuse of power," reported the Clarion-Ledger.

The bill, if passed, would create a committee to look at federal laws and executive orders and decide which constitute overreach and should be "neutralized."

It's not a new idea. In the 1950s, after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that desegregated public schools, Mississippi created the Sovereignty Commission in order to do anything "deemed necessary" to protect the state from "encroachment" by the federal government. It turned into a spying organization that promoted segregation.

The two legislators who introduced H.B. 490, state Reps. Gary Chism (R) and Jeff Smith (R), claim it simply enforces the 10th Amendment. However, a professor from the University of Missisippi School of Law pointed out that Article VI of the Constitution clearly says that federal law is "the supreme law of the land," making H.B. 490 unconstitutional.

Earlier this month, the White House responded to multiple petitions from people of various states that claimed to want to secede from the United States. In the response, Jon Carson, Director of the Office of Public Engagement, wrote that the founding fathers "enshrined in that document the right to change our national government...But they did not provide a right to walk away from it. "

[Image: State Flag Of Mississippi on Shutterstock]