Florida Senate - 2017                                    SM 1106
       
       
        
       By Senator Perry
       
       
       
       
       
       8-00449-17                                            20171106__
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to the Congress of the United States,
    3         urging Congress to propose to the states an amendment
    4         to the United States Constitution that allows Congress
    5         to deem a law that has been declared void by certain
    6         federal courts active and operational.
    7  
    8         WHEREAS, the judicial branch of the Federal Government has
    9  taken on an increasingly activist role aimed at molding
   10  legislation according to the political beliefs of its members,
   11  and
   12         WHEREAS, such an activist posture tends to excessively
   13  consolidate power in one branch of government, and, as George
   14  Washington observed, such encroachments eventually create “a
   15  real despotism,” and
   16         WHEREAS, George Washington also wrote that the appropriate
   17  method of effecting constitutional change is through amendment
   18  and not by usurpation, as such encroachments would eventually
   19  destroy free governments, and
   20         WHEREAS, none of the members of the federal judiciary,
   21  including the justices of the United States Supreme Court, are
   22  elected officials subject to what Thomas Jefferson described as
   23  “the elective control,” and
   24         WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court currently
   25  possesses ultimate and unchecked authority on matters of the
   26  constitutionality of the United States’ laws such that its
   27  opinion on such matters has the same effect as amending the
   28  United States Constitution, and
   29         WHEREAS, Thomas Jefferson foresaw the dangers of “allowing
   30  judges to be the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional
   31  questions,” calling this “a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and
   32  one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy,”
   33  and
   34         WHEREAS, the presence of such unchecked and plenary
   35  authority on determining the constitutional validity of a law of
   36  the United States must be dismantled for the sake of our
   37  republic and for the continued empowerment of its people, and
   38         WHEREAS, the United States Congress may submit proposed
   39  constitutional amendments for consideration and ratification by
   40  the states, NOW, THEREFORE,
   41  
   42  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   43  
   44         That the Florida Legislature respectfully petitions the
   45  United States Congress to propose to the states an amendment to
   46  the United States Constitution providing that any law,
   47  resolution, or other legislative act declared void by the United
   48  States Supreme Court or a United States court of appeals may be
   49  deemed active and operational, notwithstanding the court’s
   50  ruling, if agreed to by Congress pursuant to a joint resolution
   51  adopted by a 60 percent vote of each chamber of Congress within
   52  5 years after the date the ruling becomes final. Such a joint
   53  resolution shall take effect immediately upon passage.
   54         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   55  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   56  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   57  United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
   58  the Florida delegation to the United States Congress.