Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century.

• Author: Puterbaugh, Dolores T.
• Position: Book review

NULLIFICATION: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century BY THOMAS E. WOODS JR. REGNERY PUBLISHING, INC., WASHINGTONI D.C. 2010, 309 PAGES, $24.95

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It was fascinating to revisit this book so soon alter the majority of the incoming class of the House of Representatives threw its weight around by insisting that, to the amazement of many in government and the press, proposed bills actually reference the Constitutional clause granting power for such action to the Federal government. If you are a fan of limited central powers, you were relieved at this development. This has been a tricky position to defend. It is easy to be beaten about the ears with accusations of racism if one defends states' rights, because the lazy thinker segues from states' rights to the secession of the Confederate states and, from there, to an assumption that anyone defending states' rights therefore secretly must be a fan of slavery. This is tiresome and it is much like trying to reason with a small child. Many of us have given up having the discussion entirely.

Into the fray marches Thomas E. Woods Jr., well-educated and a fluid, personable writer, with this readable and well-footnoted account of the history of nullification as it relates to the relationship between the Federal government and the states. Nullification, Woods explains, grounding his argument in the writings of the Founding Fathers, is the "rightful remedy" to Federal overreach. It is, in fact, the obligation of the separate state governments. Nullification requires that, when a Federal act is unconstitutional, states must declare it so and refuse to enforce said law and its subsidiary requirements. By voluntarily joining the union of states, and swearing to uphold and defend the Constitution, the duty of such nullification encompasses resistance of Federal misbehavior, whether by legislation or the surreptitious means of executive order or...