SCR21 affirms “the sovereign right of Louisiana to nullify unconstitutional acts of the federal government.”
The House passed SCR21 on June 7, 2023, by a vote of 67 to 29. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because Article VI, Clause 2, of the U.S. Constitution requires that federal laws be made “in Pursuance” of the Constitution in order to be the “supreme Law of the Land.” As such, any federal act that violates the Constitution is unconstitutional and therefore null, void, and of no force. Given that Article VI, Clause 3, further requires that state officials “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution,” legislators in Louisiana indeed have a solemn duty to uphold the sovereign right of the people to resist and obstruct usurpations of power by the federal government. Nullification is the Constitution’s solution to reining in out-of-control government.