7 Ways States Are Defying the Federal Government With Local Laws

In light of an overbearing federal government pushing gun control, health care reform, and the NDAA, some local governments have taken actions to increase the freedom in their states.

There are, of course, so many ways that states try to exert their constitutional power but these are the top seven.

1. Texas and guns:

There is nothing like threatening to throw federal officers in jail for enforcing what Texas believes is against the Second Amendment. A proposed bill would make it a felony to enforce federal gun control laws, and the legislation is apparently very popular amongst Texans.

Texas is not the only state that is trying to pass such laws: Washington fines enforcement agents, there's protection for gun makers in Michigan, and there's a pending refusal to enforce presidential executive orders in Oregon. States across the country are exerting the right to bear arms with some impressive gusto.

2. Virginia’s own currency:

Nothing shows a lack of confidence in the federal government like a state that has begun printing its own state currency in preparation for the imminent collapse of the U.S. dollar.  Virginia is moving closer to issuing its own state currency. The last time the states could print their own money without government intervention was 1863.

3. Washington’s anti-NDAA bill:

A title worth its weight in gold, the Washington State Preservation of Liberty Act is attempting to reverse the National Defense Authorization Act that explicitly gives the president powers that were before considered hush-hush. It is about time that the anti-civil-right-constitutional trials by bureaucrats, habeas "indefinite" corpus, and execution by white paper are being contested by the states.

4. Idaho nullifying Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges:

Nullification has an incredibly bad rap, but the obscure legal principle was in fact first used to nullify the Federal Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 which forced free states to return slaves to Southern states, far from its perceived "racist" origins.

Well, nullification is happening again in Idaho for considerably different reasons. This time, legislators are trying to reduce the cost of health care: yes, the thing Obama said universal health care would do. Protesters want to attempt to circumvent the federal health care exchange for a smaller statewide one.

5. Mississippi nullifying federal laws:

Yes, nullification again. But this one is a little broader: Mississippi lawmakers are in the process of legislating a rather unconventional committee to nullify federal laws the state doesn’t want to follow. This is probably the only government committee I would be honored to serve on but that is beside the point.

But wait, there's more: South Carolina is considering introducing similar legislation to nullify "gun control, health-care reform, and the detention of suspected terrorists."

6. Marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado:

This is a really big deal. The longest prohibition of a recreational substance in U.S. history has been nominally lifted in two states, and not for some conspicuous coffee shop or medical use but rather full-blown legalization. It doesn’t take a marijuana user or even someone who detests drug use to realize the profundity of such increases in human freedom and the positive benefit of eliminating the negative effects of black markets.

7. The Free State Project in New Hampshire:

Last but not least, America can now boast the migration of thousands of freedom seekers who are doing something more powerful than voting: using their feet. The Free State Project is trying to round up freedom-lovers to New Hampshire to "free" it.

Nothing says success when liberal state representatives are threatening to make their state an "unwelcoming environment" and restrict the freedoms the migrants want. The pro-liberty movement knows it; there was a surge in interest in moving to New Hampshire by "Free Staters" after the viral explosion of those comments.