Here’s a hot one for you: This January, the General Assembly will consider proposing a constitutional amendment. The so-called “Repeal Amendment” would give two-thirds of the states the power to repeal any federal law or regulation. Here’s the text:
Any provision of law or regulation of the United States may be repealed by the several states, and such repeal shall be effective when the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states approve resolutions for this purpose that particularly describe the same provision or provisions of law or regulation to be repealed.
The idea was floated today in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. The authors were Randy E. Barnett, a Georgetown law professor, and William J. Howell, Virginia’s speaker of the House.
“At present, the only way for states to contest a federal law or regulation is to bring a constitutional challenge in federal court or seek an amendment to the Constitution,” write Barnett and Howell. “A state repeal power provides a targeted way to reverse particular congressional acts and administrative regulations without relying on federal judges or permanently amending the text of the Constitution to correct a specific abuse.
Hear! Hear! The nation desperately needs another mechanism to stem the overweening power of the leviathan state. This should make for a rollicking good debate in the blogosphere this fall. What a bold stroke, gentlemen. Let Virginia lead the nation in reclaiming powers rightfully belonging to the states!
