States battle Biden over America’s constitutional heart

One of the major “accomplishments” of the Biden administration has been a rapid increase in conflict between the federal government and the states.

While massively expanding regulations and government interference to advance leftist causes (such as the elimination of fossil fuels and the encouragement of “gender-affirming” surgery for minors), the Biden administration has engaged in spectacular neglect of constitutional duties in matters where the solution would undermine Democrats’ political power (such as border enforcement and election security).

The federal government today is at the peak of its domination and on the verge of a tactical reversal — or it is headed for a massive disaster.

Ironically, this conflict is turning out to be a good thing. The left has clarified that its positions involve the full centralization of power in the federal government, and state governments and the public are finally realizing that the feds are devoted to that effort regardless of which political party has formal control. It is also increasingly clear that the nation’s institutions of economic and cultural power are with the national government in that campaign.

The states are pushing back. On immigration, for example, in addition to helping Texas guard its southern border, states are now passing laws authorizing law enforcement officers to find and apprehend people residing illegally within their borders.

Border backlash

In Oklahoma last week, Governor Kevin Stitt signed HB 4156, which gives “state law enforcement officers the authority to arrest people without legal authority to be in the United States,” designating the offense an “impermissible occupation” punishable by a year in jail or a $500 fine for a first offense, USA Today reported. Those penalties are doubled for subsequent arrests, and in either case, “offenders will be required to leave the state within 72 hours of their conviction or release from custody, whichever comes later,” the paper reports.

Texas, Florida, Iowa, and Tennessee have likewise enacted laws criminalizing illegal occupation, and other states are considering similar measures. Cities and counties are following suit. According to the Epoch Times, counties in upstate New York counties have been “using local zoning laws to stop [New York City Mayor Eric Adams] from busing illegal immigrants to live in their hotels.” Taunton, Massachusetts, used its zoning laws to prevent the state from housing homeless people and immigrant lawbreakers at a local hotel.

This is all in response to the Biden administration’s flagrant refusal to guard the nation’s southern border.

Sex and gender in the dock

A similar case of intense Biden administration aggression against the states is playing out before the U.S. Supreme Court in Idaho v. United States and Moyle v. United States.

In oral arguments in late April, several justices questioned the Biden administration’s attempt to negate “Idaho’s general abortion ban by imposing conditions on the recipients of federal funds,” meaning hospitals, especially when “the state did not enter into the contract with the federal government (and therefore did not agree to the conditions imposed by the government),” SCOTUSblog reported.

Justice Samuel Alito said the Biden administration is “asking the justices to interpret ‘a statute signed by Ronald Reagan’ as imposing a duty to perform an abortion even when doing so would be contrary to state law,” the blog added.

Meanwhile, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed an executive order last week directing state agencies not to enforce the Biden administration’s new Title IX interpretation that requires schools to let students access facilities based on “gender identity.” Sanders called the Biden Title IX regulations an “attack on common sense” and said she was “appalled” by the rule.

A couple of days earlier, six states sued the U.S. Department of Education to block implementation of the rules. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told the press, “The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms.”

Nullification rising?

In a direct blow against such federal regulatory misconduct, Utah enacted a law in March establishing a process for negating federal government decisions with which it disagrees. Under the new law, “the Legislature may, by concurrent resolution, prohibit a government officer from enforcing or assisting in the enforcement of a federal directive within the state if the Legislature determines the federal directive violates the principles of state sovereignty,” Reason reported.

Opinion polls show the new law accords with current public opinion across the country. Pew Research found only “16% of Americans say they trust the government in Washington to do the right thing just about always or most of the time,” and Gallup pollsters found “Americans have the most faith in local government (67%) and the least faith in the legislative branch of the federal government, or Congress (32%),” while “state governments fall between the two,” Reason reported.

In direct opposition to public opinion and the Constitution, the Biden administration is doing everything it can to establish full authoritarian rule on the national level, with the states reduced to nothing more than its vassals.

The federal government today is at the peak of its domination and on the verge of a tactical reversal — or it is headed for a massive disaster. Biden’s threat to use F-15s and nuclear weapons against those who want “to take on the government” may have seemed clever when directed at handgun owners, but it rings increasingly hollow as state after state does exactly that.

It appears that the federal government under Joe Biden has gone about as far as it can in antagonizing the states. Unfortunately, Biden’s recklessness seems to have no limit.