Actually it’s a ‘power’ as people have rights.<\/p>\n
Former Arizona AG: States have constitutional right to self-defense<\/a><\/p>\n Former Republican Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich again on Tuesday argued the constitutional authority given to states for self-defense.<\/p>\n Brnovich\u00a0testified at a U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing addressing the issue after being the first and only state attorney general to issue a formal legal opinion that defines an invasion and lays out the constitutional authority of states\u2019 self-defense.<\/p>\n Other testimony was presented by representatives of the Texas Attorney General\u2019s Office, the Immigration Reform Law Institute and the ACLU.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The opinion,\u00a0published<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on Feb. 7, 2022, was instrumental to three Texas counties being the first in the country to declare an invasion on July 5, 2022. Despite numerous calls for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to issue a similar opinion, he did not. Paxton’s first assistant, Brent Webster, who also testified on Tuesday,\u00a0previously argued<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0counties declaring an invasion were \u201cshort-sighted\u201d and \u201cthe Mexican army wasn\u2019t invading our country.\u201d<\/p>\n Retired FBI counterintelligence experts have\u00a0argued<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0the opposite after millions of single military-age men have poured through the southern border wearing camouflage, carrying weapons and fentanyl, saying they constitute a \u201csoft invasion.\u201d They overwhelmingly outnumber U.S. Army companies (100 soldiers), battalions (1,000), brigades (5,000), divisions (15,000) and corps (45,000).<\/p>\n \u201cIn its modern history, the U.S. has never suffered an invasion of the homeland, and, yet, one is unfolding now,\u201d they warned Congress. \u201cMilitary age men from across the globe, many from countries or regions not friendly to the United States, are landing in waves on our soil by the thousands \u2013 not by splashing ashore from a ship or parachuting from a plane but rather by foot across a border that has been accurately advertised around the world as largely unprotected with ready access granted.\u201d<\/p>\n Former active-duty Navy JAG and General Counsel for Citizens Defending Freedom, Jonathan Hullihan,\u00a0challenged<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Webster\u2019s argument, arguing Texas is under invasion by transnational criminal organizations using nontraditional warfare. While Paxton\u2019s office has focused on\u00a0immigration case law<\/a><\/strong>, Hullihan and others argue the issue facing Texas is about national security and constitutional authority, not immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Webster partially reversed course, saying Texas Gov. Greg Abbott\u00a0was \u201cright\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0to invoke the invasion clause but focused his testimony on litigation efforts unrelated to the clauses Brnovich, Hullihan, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, all former active-duty JAGs, have\u00a0championed<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n They were among the first to argue the federal government has abdicated its authority under Article 4, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution (Guarantee Clause). As a result, the states, under Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 (Self-Defense Clause), have a right to defend themselves when \u201cactually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.\u201d<\/p>\n Kinney County Attorney Brent Smith was the\u00a0first to call<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0for counties to declare an invasion, citing these clauses. Hullihan argues of the 51 county invasion resolutions passed, Crockett County\u2019s\u00a0invasion declaration<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0best describes the threat of nontraditional warfare.<\/p>\n Brnovich testified a state \u201cdoes not need the consent of Congress\u201d to declare an invasion. He said the Guarantee Clause \u201cprovides that the United States shall protect each state against invasion. This clause provides dual protection against an invasion broadly defined. This includes not only defending against actions by foreign hostilities but also other enterprises and more powerful neighbors as the constitution states.\u201d It also \u201cencompasses a broad self-defense\u201d against non-state actors like cartels and gangs operating along the border.<\/p>\n He also referenced the import-export clause in Article 1 Section 10, included in his formal opinion, arguing that founding father James Madison \u201cspecifically cited Virginia using its militia to stop smugglers as an example of a valid exercise of the invasion power, and there is every basis to conclude this sovereign power was retained as reflected in the State Self-Defense Clause.\u201d<\/p>\n It recognizes that states \u201cretain sovereign authority to execute inspection laws which requires operational control of the state\u2019s border to channel entry of goods to authorized ports of entry,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is an aspect of the historical police power that is expressly reserved for the States. In sum, both the power of self-defense against actually being invaded and the power to execute inspection laws are sovereign powers that have been retained by the states under the U.S. Constitution.\u201d It also authorizes states to repel an \u201cinvasion of their borders that is a threat to public safety and security.\u201d<\/p>\n Cartel violence and lawlessness along the U.S. southern border \u201cis extensive, well documented, and persistent,\u201d Brnovich said, which satisfies the definition of being invaded under the Constitution. He reiterated that the clauses clarify that \u201cthe federal government has a duty to protect states under the invasion clause;\u201d when it \u201cfails to meet its constitutional duties states retain the independent authority under the state self-defense clause to defend themselves when actually being invaded.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing in federal constitutional or statutory law authorizing the federal executive to thwart the states from ensuring on the ground safety and orderly border within their states,\u201d he said. \u201cNor is there any conflict with this and the orderly conduct of immigration policy by the federal executive. No state should ever be put in the position that border states have been put in through the federal government’s recent actions.\u201d<\/p>\n Brnovich also urged Congress to remember that \u201cstates created the federal government, not the other way around. When the federal government refuses or neglects to protect its citizens, the states have an obligation and the ability to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Actually it’s a ‘power’ as people have rights. Former Arizona AG: States have constitutional right to self-defense Former Republican Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich again on Tuesday argued the constitutional authority given to states for self-defense. Brnovich\u00a0testified at a U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing addressing the issue after being the first and only state attorney … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","category-safety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99695,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99694\/revisions\/99695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}