Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas, has proposed a series of nine constitutional amendments that would allow states the power to ignore federal laws and overrule the Supreme Court. It’s not secession, but it’s a close second.
The projected amendments would allow for a two-thirds majority vote to override federal regulations and Supreme Court decisions while banning Congress from “regulating activity that occurs wholly within one state,” and requiring seven Supreme Court votes to overturn a “democratically enacted law.”
Naturally, the Republican’s call to action was motivated by personal opposition to recent federal action regarding same-sex marriage and immigration, but he prefers to paint it as a response to federal officials disrespect for the limitations of their power as set by the constitution.
“The Texas Plan is not so much a vision to alter the Constitution as it is a call to restore the rule of our current one” Abbott claims. “The problem is that we have forgotten what our Constitution means, and with that amnesia, we also have forgotten what it means to be governed by laws instead of men.”
Though the irony in his call to uphold the Constitution in its current state by changing it completely isn’t lost on many, Abbott’s proposition will undoubtedly gain at least some traction with the kind of Texans who like to claim that the south will rise again.
