Another Baby Step to Liberty

Please read the report below from Campaign4Liberty on the State Resolution SCR004/SR17 10th Amendment State Sovereignty.

Remember Article 1 §3 Michigan Bill of Rights or Declaration of Rights (It means the same thing)

§ 3 Assembly, consultation, instruction, petition.
Sec. 3.

The people have the right peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good, to instruct their representatives and to petition the government for redress of grievances.

WTP Congress members know how the petition process works and we need to continue this process here within our state and work from the bottom up. We should all be sending Bob Schultz a BIG THANK YOU for teaching us the process of Petition for Redress.

Rose Lear

C4L wrote:

Don't ever let anyone tell you that the rule of law is dead. Our Founders understood that it would fall to the will of the people to hold their elected representatives to the letter of the law, namely the Constitution.

Today, during a Michigan Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, a well informed group of citizen patriots made their will known in concise, humble, but realistic terms. They reminded members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that their sworn oaths to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the Sovereign State of Michigan and its citizens is Job #1.

Citizens of Michigan filled the chamber as the Judiciary Committee heard testimony in favor of SCR004/SR17, which reaffirms Michigan's Sovereignty Under the 10th Amendment. Introduced by Senator Bruce Patterson, passage of the Concurrent Resolution became a goal of Campaign for Liberty - Michigan. Numerous members of the trans-partisan group, along with approximately 100 dedicated citizens, most constituents of Committee Members, unequivocally expressed their support for the measure. Through civic education, petition drives, information sharing, media contacts, neighborhood canvassing, phone banking and participation at numerous public events, Campaign for Liberty members across the State were instrumental in engaging the public, and bringing the issue to state-wide attention.

During opening ! statemen ts, Senator Patterson and several other committee members stated that in their entire careers of public service, they had never experienced such a display of public support for a Resolution. Patterson's comments were punctuated with the brandishing of heavy stacks of personal petitions of support from "the People", collected and hand-carried to his Lansing office by C4L members. "To ignore the will of the people with a no vote", he stated, "was tantamount to violating the oath sworn by each of us upon entering public office".

Those present also got to witness first hand the "carrot and stick" approach often used by the Federal Government in dealing with the States, as the session began with debate of a resolution concerning the possibility of the Obama Administration transferring several "enemy combatants" currently housed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to a soon-to-be closed prison facility in Standish, Michigan. The promise of jobs and federal funding was dangled as the carrot to encourage agreement. However, in testimony before the Committee, Congressman Pete Hoekstra pointed out that before agreeing to house such suspects within our state, Senators should insist on the declassification and sharing of evidence and background information on each of the prisoners in order to determine the risk to the Citizens of Michigan. Hoekstra also mentioned the possibility of de-funding by the Congress after initial implementation, leaving Michigan with another unfunded liability and added pressure on our State budget and taxpayers.

At the conclusion of the hearing, the Judiciary Committee voted unanimously to report SCR004/SR17 out of committee, with recommendation for approval. The issue will now go to the full Senate for debate and vote. A similar resolution HCR004, introduced by Representative Paul Opsommer, has been bogged down in the House Government Operations Committee, with no schedule for hearing. A little taste of Campaign for Liberty-style cit! izen act ivism may just do the trick.

It appears that the people of Michigan have finally awakened to the abuse of power being visited upon us by our out-of-control Federal Government. Our last best hope may lie with the reassertion of State and individual sovereignty. Nullification of unconstitutional federal law has always been the pervue of State Legislatures, and the people through the jury process.

Thanks go to all of you who traveled to Lansing to help deliver this message. Our return to individual liberty has just begun. Let this be our wake-up call. Never again can we allow our government to break the chains imposed upon it by our Constitution. We must remain vigilant, informed, and dedicated to the liberty and freedom promised by our Founders.

We are so proud of all of you,

Campaign for Liberty
CJ Schuman
David Dudenhoefer
Dan Osterman
Trish Kraus

and liberty-minded Michiganders everywhere