URGENT: H 7389 is being considered by the Rhode Island House of Representatives, which recently held a hearing on the bill. Please contact your state legislators, and urge them to support this important bill.
Members of the Rhode Island General Assembly are seeking to enact legislation nullifying unconstitutional federal deployments of the Rhode Island National Guard.
House Bill 7389 (H 7389) is sponsored by Representative David Place (R-Burrillville) and three other representatives. This bill would prevent combat deployments of the Rhode Island National Guard by the federal government in the absence of a congressional declaration of war or another constitutional reason in accordance with Article I, Section 8, Clauses 11 and 15, of the U.S. Constitution.
According to the Tenth Amendment Center, over 650,000 National Guard troops have been sent to foreign conflicts since 2001, and 45 percent of the total U.S. forces sent to Iraq and Afghanistan have been National Guard or Reserve troops. If Rhode Island and other states prohibit unconstitutional National Guard deployments, the federal government’s participation in these foreign conflicts would be severely hampered, therefore limiting the federal government’s ability to further entangle the U.S. in any undeclared wars overseas.
Such a limitation on the federal government’s ability to carry out an internationalist and interventionist foreign policy would be consistent with the wisdom of the Founding Fathers. In his 1796 Farewell Address, President George Washington affirmed, “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” President Thomas Jefferson reiterated the same policy in his first inaugural address, advocating for “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.”
Importance
H 7389 is an excellent application of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, which states “[t]his Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof … shall be the supreme Law of the Land.”
Since the federal government’s engagement in endless, undeclared wars — subversion going back decades — violates the U.S. Constitution, it cannot be considered “in Pursuance thereof” and, thus, is not “the supreme Law of the Land.” Unfortunately, over the last several decades, thousands of unconstitutional laws on the federal, state, and even local levels have been created and enforced.
Because of this, state legislatures have a duty to rein in unconstitutional wars and robustly enforce the Constitution and only those laws and actions “in Pursuance thereof.” H 7389 is an excellent model for other states to follow.
Urge your state representatives and senator to support H 7389 in order to support the Rhode Island National Guard and nullify unconstitutional wars. Additionally, encourage them to also push back against all other unconstitutional laws at every level of government.
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