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Tennessee State Representative Bud Hulsey has proposed a bill that would establish a permanent procedure for Tennessee to nullify all unconstitutional acts of the federal government.

Hulsey correctly insists that Tennessee — and every other state in the union — retains the authority to refuse to cooperate with any act of the federal government that exceeds the scope of its constitutionally enumerated powers.

Hulsey’s Restoring State Sovereignty Through Nullification Act — HB 0726 and its companion bill, SB 1092 — would bring every “past, present, or future” federal action under the scrutiny of state evaluation, with an eye on establishing whether the federal action in question is permissible according the authority granted to it by the states in the U.S. Constitution.

In reviewing a federal action, the state would consider “the plain reading and reasoning of the text of the United States Constitution and the understood definitions at the time of the framing and construction of the Constitution by the framers.”

An action deemed “unconstitutional” would be subject to nullification, and a declaration that the act is “null and void” in Tennessee would bar state and local governments from enforcing the nullified federal act.

Representative Hulsey understands the correct constitutional relationship between the states and the federal government.

The states created the federal government, set the boundaries of its power, and reserved to themselves all other rights not specifically delegated to the new federal authority. The contract containing the rights and responsibilities of the parties that created the federal government is called the Constitution. This act of collective consenting is called a compact.

This element of the creation of the union is precisely where the states derive their power to nullify acts of the federal government that exceed its constitutional authority. It is a thread woven inextricably in every strand of sovereignty. It was the sovereign states that ceded the territory of authority that the federal government occupies.

James Madison said it best in The Federalist, No. 45:

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.