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Jon Roland explains his proposal for legislation for the Texas Legislature that would establish a Federal Action Review Commission to decide whether federal actions are unconstitutional, require state agents ot to cooperate with them, and urge citizens to resist them. With Lela Pittenger. Austin Constitution Meetup Jan. 25, 2010.
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so what I've
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drafted is a
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bill which
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would propos to the voters a
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constitutional amendment for
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Texas which would set up a uh what we
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what I'm calling a federal action review
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commission other names are possible we
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could call it a commission on to review
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Federal actions or you know whatever but
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um those are the four key
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words and what it would do would be
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organized as like like a grand
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jury with 23 members drawn at random
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from a pool of uh constitutional
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Scholars legal experts it wouldn't be
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ordinary
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citizens but it would be people who had
1:01
enough training in law and legal history
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to be able to make an informed decision
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concerning what is and is not
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constitutional the idea would be that
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they would hear
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complaints about unconstitutional
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Federal
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actions and if they
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found that a federal action was
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unconstitutional their finding would be
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an edict with a fourth of law requiring
1:40
non-cooperation by All State
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officials and urging citizens not to
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cooperate so the commission would become
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the the body that would sit between
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sessions of the
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legislature meeting once at least once a
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week to hear citizen complaints and be
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able to
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operate uh to lead Civil Disobedience to
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them so the the there are several other
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components to this
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proposal besides creating the commission
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and providing for how it would be
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selected how it would
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operate there's also a provision for
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State funding to uh
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defend uh citizens who run a foul of uh
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these Federal
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statutes and who need to be defended in
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court now there's a
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uh
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uh Supreme Court
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precedent that bar States from
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representing their student their
2:56
citizens in federal court and in what is
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called parens
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patrii this is an old legal doctrine
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that the government can represent the
3:08
rights of citizens in court and the
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Supreme Court in 1923 ruled that states
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couldn't couldn't do
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that so what states can still do is
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provide funding to private lawyers to
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represent such
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citizens so the the bill that I have
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propo drafted so
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far tries to cover all the key
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bases in order
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to uh mobilize the citizens of the state
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to resist unconstitutional Federal
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actions and when I say Federal actions I
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don't just mean Federal
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legislation I also mean administrative
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or regulatory actions I mean judicial
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decis
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decisions uh all kinds of
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things now it would not be a review of
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unconstitutional State
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actions uh some people have asked me to
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include that I don't think that's a good
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idea because this needs to be a state
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body and free of interference by state
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officials and if it starts trying to
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review to State actions it would be seen
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seen as competing with the legislature
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and the legislature wouldn't want to
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support
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that so we need a body that is only
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going to review Federal actions and only
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report on those that he finds
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unconstitutional it would not be finding
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whether they are
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constitutional it's not tasked to do
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that it's only tasked to look at one in
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One Direction namely for
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unconstitutional Federal
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actions now what I would hope and
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expect is that initially the commission
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would not try to take on too much at one
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time that it would uh start out with
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small things that the feds are doing
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that are clearly
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unconstitutional and a public support
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for resisting
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those and then from one week to the
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next uh add more and more and more each
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one becoming a little bit Bolder more
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fundamental uh so that its findings its
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reports its presentments would become
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news items that would become the topics
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of public
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discussion that public support would
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build for them as each report came
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out and that over the course of a few
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years it would gradually build up to the
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point where first of all other states
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would be joining in with their own
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commissions and second uh there would be
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a ground swell of public resistance to
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unconstitutional Federal
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actions that would eventually make it
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almost impossible for congress
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politically to adopt them and indeed
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would drive them even perhaps to repeal
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a lot of the
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stuff so that is the
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Hope and uh I'm spreading the word as
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widely as I can this video is one of
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them uh I hope that you will uh
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encourage uh your friends and neighbors
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to to view it to go to our website to uh
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get the the draft of the bill so
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far and uh to work with your own state
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legislatures to adopt and to adapt and
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adopt versions in each state they don't
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have to be
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identical um some states may not want
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commissions that have legislatures that
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are in continuous session but the
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legislature in Texas only meets for 180
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days every other year so it's not in
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continuous session and it cannot attend
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to all the complaints that might come
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before it besides which we really need a
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separate structure a grand jury like uh
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structure that won't take up any of the
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time of the of the
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legislature therefore uh the proposal as
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we've outlined it
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