Members of the New Hampshire General Court are seeking to enact legislation that would help prevent unconstitutional federal law-enforcement activities in New Hampshire.
House Bill 102 (HB 102) is sponsored by Representative Mike Belcher (R-Carroll) and three other representatives. If enacted, this bill would give sheriffs and sheriff’s deputies “oversight over all federal law enforcement actions within the sheriff’s county.”
The rest of the bill declares:
The sheriff and the sheriff’s deputies shall have a nonparticipating presence, in addition to any participatory presence, at the service of all federal warrants and at all federal arrests within the county in order to ensure that the rights of New Hampshire residents are upheld at all times and that federal law enforcement actions are held to best practices for minimizing the application of deadly force. The sheriff shall require that all federal law enforcement agencies provide the sheriff with advance notice of any actions to be taken within the sheriff’s county. The sheriff may, at his or her discretion, consider any imminent or ongoing federal law enforcement action in his or her county for which prior notice was not provided, for which reasonable lawful justification was not provided, or for which best practices for minimizing the application of deadly force are not observed, to be unauthorized and unlawful, and subject to termination by the sheriff or the sheriff’s deputies.
HB 102 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.”
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution does not grant the federal government any authority over law-enforcement matters, nor does it allow the federal government to usurp the authority of county sheriffs. As reinforced by the 10th Amendment, such matters are reserved to the states and the people. Accordingly, any federal involvement in local law enforcement is not “in Pursuance” of the Constitution — and state and local officials have a duty to enforce the Constitution by nullifying such edicts.
Also, locally controlled law enforcement is integral to a free society. When local control is diluted, accountability to local voters is also diluted, and big-government power is increased. Federal involvement in local police is dangerous; it makes the latter dependent on the former, thus allowing the federal government to insidiously take over local police departments. This is a major step toward federalized police.
County sheriffs are key to protecting citizens against tyranny — they were at the forefront of nullifying state and federal Covid/vaccine mandates, and they also have protected against state and federal gun-control measures. In countries with federalized law enforcement — such as Canada, China, and the socialist-run European countries — nothing is stopping the central government from violating people’s God-given rights.
Urge your state representative and senator to support HB 102 and every other measure that nullifies unconstitutional federal actions or usurpations.
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