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Lawmakers to Introduce 'Repeal Amendment,' Presumably Add Asterisk to Supremacy Clause

By Eric Lipman

In an effort to force the rewriting of junior high social studies books nationwide, The Daily Caller reported Saturday that Republican Congressmen Eric Cantor and Bob Bishop will be proposing to amend the Constitution to allow state legislatures to repeal any federal laws they don't care for. Here's what the proposed amendment would look like: Any provision of law or regulation of the United States may be repealed by the several states, and such repeal shall be effective when the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states approve resolutions for this purpose that particularly describe the same provision or provisions of law or regulation to be repealed. While Darren Hutchinson at The Dissenting Justice isn't impressed, there are some intellectual types who have come out in favor of such an amendment. For example, here are the thoughts of professor Randy Barnett and William J. Howell, Republican speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, writing in the Wall Street Journal in September (as reprinted on the Cato Institute's website): This amendment reflects confidence in the collective wisdom of the men and women from diverse backgrounds, and elected by diverse constituencies, who comprise the modern legislatures of two-thirds of the states. Put...

Full post as published by Legal Blog Watch on November 22, 2010 (boomark / email).