I guess the Civil War didn't settle this question after all

[edschweppe]

An Arizona businessman thinks that Arizona citizens should be able to decide in a referendum which Federal laws, regulations, etc. apply to them, according to the East Valley Tribune (among many):

A Phoenix business owner launched an initiative drive Monday designed to let Arizona voters override federal laws.

And John Biltis said he’s prepared to spend millions of dollars of his own money to put the issue on the November ballot and convince Arizonans to approve it.

The initiative would leave in place a provision in Arizona’s own constitution which says the federal Constitution "is the supreme law of the land." But it proposes to add language saying the federal document may not be violated by any government — including the federal government.

More to the point, it would allow Arizonans "to reject any federal action that they determine violates the United States Constitution." And they would be able to do this either through a vote of the state House and Senate with consent of the governor, or through a popular vote on a ballot measure.

Biltis, the sole owner of TAG Employer Services, said he takes literally the federal constitutional provisions which spell out that Congress has only the power specifically enumerated.

Funny, I had thought the Civil War had settled the whole "states can ignore stuff out of Washington they don't like" bit. Silly me.

(I thought of using my WTF icon, but the meth-lab-of-democracy one is more appropriate, given the location.)