This is just insane revanchism:
Unless a handful of wavering Democrats change their minds, the Republican-controlled Missouri legislature is expected to enact a statute next month nullifying all federal gun laws in the state and making it a crime for federal agents to enforce them here. A Missourian arrested under federal firearm statutes would even be able to sue the arresting officer.Will the courts strike down the override? If the nullification craze picks up steam, and becomes respectable and somewhat within-the-pale, is it so crazy to think that the Roberts Court might someday agree, perhaps in an Obamacare-nullification case, if not in a gun case? (I'm operating on the assumption that no Democratic president -- not Obama, not Hillary -- will ever get another justice on the Supreme Court until the number of Republicans in the Senate drops below 40.)
The law amounts to the most far-reaching states' rights endeavor in the country, the far edge of a growing movement known as "nullification" in which a state defies federal power....
The measure was vetoed last month by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, as unconstitutional. But when the legislature gathers again on Sept. 11, it will seek to override his veto, even though most experts say the courts will strike down the measure. Nearly every Republican and a dozen Democrats appear likely to vote for the override....
What else could Republicans seek to nullify? Could they conclude that the federal government has no right to prevent them from limiting voting rights to property owners, thus excluding the majority of students and poor people? Could they decide that the Constitution's Commerce Clause doesn't extend to the in-state housing market, and therefore it's lawful to refuse to sell or rent a house or apartment to someone on the basis of race or national origin? Wouldn't laws of this kind be electorally useful in a state that's either purple or trending purple because of changing demographics -- Texas, say, or Georgia, or North Carolina?
What's the limit here? How far could the right go with this? Why should we suppose it will stop with guns and Obamacare? Why should we assume that the courts will always rebuff such efforts?
