Idaho leads the Way

In what may well become one the foremost Constitutional crises in our history, the State of Idaho has put into law an act calling on its Attorney General to sue the federal government over any health insurance mandates from Washington. Similar legislation is being considered in 37 other states.

Good show, Boise. It is high time that we bring states rights back to the fore. It is absurd to argue that states have no rights against the federal establishment, and where those rights exist they must be reaffirmed.

Sure, the doctrine has been battered and abused over time; liberal historians would love to keep the idea linked with the slavery crisis in nothing less than a guilt by association scheme. But the fact is that the call of states rights can well be legitimate if and when the circumstances call for it. We are a federal system; by our political nature, localities have certain basic rights. Even the Constitution recognizes as much, as seen in those two forgotten Amendments at the end of the Bill of Rights.

Let us hope that Idaho's bold move will stiffen the spines of many other states, and remind the Congress and the President that they are not all powerful. If nothing else, perhaps this move will be the seed from which will grow a better understanding of who we are as a nation. Perhaps it will, in the end, speak to Washington as we once spoke to London, Don't Tread On Me.