According to The Salt Lake Tribune, “Utah lawmakers who have long been wary of federal encroachment on their powers are now thinking of spending an estimated $85,800 a year to monitor the U.S. government for actions that “implicate the principles of federalism or state sovereignty.” … [Rep. Ken] Ivory suggested in a Monday morning committee hearing that legislators could hire Utah Valley University, which he said has a constitutional studies center and academics interested in assisting the state federalism commission.”
For state legislators who constantly complain about the “Deep State” and “federal overreach,” how do they explain having a university curriculum of their choosing determine what is or is not constitutional? What does the Utah Valley University Constitutional Studies Center teach?
If it is anything like the National Center for Constitutional Studies founded by W. Cleon Skousen to promote correct constitutional principles based on the Founding Fathers’ magic formula, then Utah taxpayers are in for an interesting ride.
And exactly what is the Federalism Commission, created by Ken Ivory almost a decade ago, if not a deep state shadow government operating under the auspices of the state?
If you haven’t yet read HB209 Federalism Commission Amendments, start with the original bill and then check out the substitutions.
Ivory wants you to believe that all he is interested in doing is restoring the balance of power between the states and the federal government. What he doesn’t tell you is the balance of power between the states and the federal government changed dramatically when the South lost the Civil War.
The balance between states’ rights and state sovereignty — which, in the U.S. Constitution, was tied directly into property rights, i.e. owning slaves — and the federal government was altered by the passage of the Reconstruction Amendments freeing the slaves and ensuring voting rights and eventually civil rights to all citizens of the United States.
Your Federalism Commission appears to be made up in large part of pre-Civil War states’ rights, state sovereignty advocates who have conveniently and collectively forgotten about the Civil War and any of the subsequent constitutional amendments and legal decisions made based upon those amendments since 1865.
If you look at all the legislation proposed and/or passed this session that undermines public education, or public health, or voting rights, or rights of citizens who do not conform to what some legislator believes is the norm, you are looking at a state that is racing backwards into a “glorious” past that never existed; unless you were a white, land-owning male.
I was born a mere 34 years after passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. And I am not that old.
Our democracy is still in its infancy and there are those who would suffocate it in its crib.
Carey Dabney
Carey Dabney lives in Moab and is active in non-partisan political organizations.
