Virginia lawmaker proposes felony charges for any member of Congress who writes gun laws

Marie March, a far-right Virginia delegate who attended former President Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally, has a new idea, reported The Daily Beast on Thursday: prosecute members of Congress who write gun control laws.

"In a Wednesday email, first reported by Virginia political journalist Brandon Jarvis, March solicited funds from supporters who 'oppose Joe Biden and his anti-gun schemes,'" reported Kelly Weill. "If re-elected, March wrote, 'I will lead the effort to outlaw every single Federal Anti-Gun Edict or ‘rule change’ here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and make it a felony to try to push these anti-gun schemes on law-abiding citizens.' It’s unclear how such legislation would possibly work, even in the unlikely event that it is enacted. Would U.S. senators who voted for gun laws be extradited to Virginia? March did not return a call or email request for clarification."

"In her email, March offered a baroque legal theory to support the hypothetical bill," said the report. "'You see, James Madison, who wrote the Constitution, and Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence both authored another key piece of legislation that passed — the 1798 Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions,' she wrote. “In these Resolutions Jefferson said States must ‘nullify’ any and all unconstitutional actions by the Federal Government and Madison said it is the ‘duty’ of State Delegates to do so.'"

According to Jarvis, these resolutions were commonly invoked by Confederate supporters in favor of secession, and segregationists protesting Brown v. Board of Education. And they are contradicted by a report written by Madison in 1800 for the Virginia General Assembly that states do not have the authority to nullify federal law.

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March, who previously tried to pass a law requiring "One Nation Under God" decals on school buses, was one of many lawmakers who showed up to Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally immediately before the January 6 attack on the Capitol — but there is no evidence she participated in the attack itself.

She gained attention recently after filing assault charges against Wren Williams, a fellow Republican delegate against whom she is running for re-election. She claims that he “intentionally pushed/shouldered slammed” her at a gala, although footage of the alleged incident just shows him bumping into her and apologizing while leaving the event. She slammed the judge who presided over his acquittal as corrupt.