#nullification crisis

furry Nullifiers

In the 1800s, South Carolina decided it didn't have to pay federal taxes because its lawmakers believed the constitution was an unenforceable agreement between the states, something they could opt out of at any time (they said they never would have joined the Union in the first place if they had known the government would be telling them what to do). The federal government, of course, disagreed with their decision, and the Supreme Court ruled that the president had the power to mobilize the national guard to enforce federal laws if the states refused to enforce it themselves. The states cannot unilaterally nullify federal law. The federal government has authority over them unless the Court explicitly cites a breach of the 10th Amendment.

Texas is breaking federal law by violating Roe v Wade. The Supreme Court hasn't explicitly overturned Roe, so it still stands as the law of the land, which Texas is just outright ignoring because they want to. They're trying to nullify federal law, so unless the conservative majority on the court specifically overturns Roe (they very well could, which would be a legal can of worms in and of itself), Joe Biden has the legal authority to mobilize the national guard to enforce the law and stop the abortion ban. This would lead to legal challenges at best and full scale civil war at worst because the Texas guard would refuse to mobilize under his authority or would mutiny against him. But by NOT enforcing the law, the precedent is set that suddenly NO federal laws are enforceable. What's stopping a blue state from banning guns if a red state can ban abortions? Banning guns would be illegal, but if states can nullify federal law and supersede the constitution then everything is fair game. This too would lead to war as gun nuts would take up arms against the state government for trying to ban them (and chances are the blue state guard would side with the nut jobs over the government, selectively enforcing the laws for one party over the other). Damned if you do, damned if you don't; enforcing federal law could lead to war, but so could ignoring it. The ball is in the conservative's court; they can't have it both ways, they can't carve out an exception for themselves but expect the other side to keep playing along as if nothing has changed. The laws either apply to everyone or no one.

We are teetering on the edge of history right now. This could be a turning point in our republic, and I think pundits on both sides are quietly hoping it'll all blow over. They want to just sweep it under the rug so it doesn't escalate, but pressure has been building for decades, especially in the last 5 or 10 years, so something's gotta give.

You never know what's going to be a major historic event until after it happens. Maybe this becomes the new normal and abortion simply becomes illegal in a ton of states, or maybe this catalyzes a long overdue revolution. Will this end with a whimper or a bang? Who can possibly tell? I pray this isn't normalized. I pray we don't grow complacent. I pray we don't just let this happen. We need to act, we can't keep expecting old rich elites to act for us; Congress doesn't have or best interests in mind, they've proven that time and time again by failing to act on important issues from civil rights to healthcare to the minimum wage and now abortion. Half the elites want us dead, so why should we keep looking to the other half to stick their necks out for us? The solution isn't to have "good" elites combat the bad ones, it's to get rid of the elites altogether.

I don't want to undersell this. We can't just act like it's okay for Texas to ban abortions, this is a major fucking deal! But at the same time, I don't want to blow this out of proportion either. Very few things wind up in the worst case scenario, and we've made it through similarly bad situations in the past, so this might not necessarily explode into something bigger. But we just don't know how bad this will be until the consequences start piling up. Once women start seeking abortions and doctors start getting arrested and wannabe vigilantes start claiming bounties on them, then we'll know just how far the country is willing to bend before it breaks.

Either the law means something, or it doesn't. If Republicans are allowed to break whatever law they want, then they're giving Democrats carte blanche to do the exact same thing. You can't cheat and then get mad when your opponent cheats right back; you've thrown out the rules, so why would you expect the other side to keep following them? How can you possibly hold them to a higher standard then yourself?

Calhoun: ANDREW, NO, IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK-