TAC Daily Digest

Louisiana House Unanimously Passes Bill To Legalize Limited Raw Milk Sales

Alan Mosley — Thu, 02 May 2024 02:53:44 +0000

BATON ROUGE, LA. (May 1, 2024) – On Wednesday, the Louisiana House passed a bill that would legalize limited raw milk sales in the state, taking an important step toward nullifying a federal prohibition scheme in practice and effect.

Rep. Kimberly Coates introduced House Bill 467 (HB467) on Feb. 29. The legislation would allow farmers to sell unpasteurized cow and goat milk directly to consumers. However, the law would limit raw milk sales to an average of 500 gallons per month.

Current Louisiana law imposes a complete ban on the sale, transport, and importation of raw milk or raw milk products.

On May 1, the Louisiana House passed the bill by a 94-0 vote.

HB467 would establish labeling requirements, and sellers would have to meet extensive and strict sanitary regulations under the law.

In 2016, a similar bill passed the Louisiana Senate but never received a committee hearing in the House.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROHIBITION

FDA officials insist that unpasteurized milk poses a health risk because of its susceptibility to contamination from cow manure, a source of E. coli.

“It is the FDA’s position that raw milk should never be consumed,” agency spokeswoman Tamara N. Ward said in November 2011.

The FDA’s position represents more than a matter of opinion. In 1987, the feds implemented 21 CFR 1240.61(a), providing that, “no person shall cause to be delivered into interstate commerce or shall sell, otherwise distribute, or hold for sale or other distribution after shipment in interstate commerce any milk or milk product in final package form for direct human consumption unless the product has been pasteurized.”

Not only do the feds ban the transportation of raw milk across state lines, but they also claim the authority to ban unpasteurized milk within the borders of a state.

“It is within HHS’s authority…to institute an intrastate ban [on unpasteurized milk] as well,” FDA officials wrote in response to a Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund lawsuit against the agency over the interstate ban.

The FDA clearly wants complete prohibition of raw milk and some insiders say it’s only a matter of time before the feds try to institute an absolute ban. Armed raids by FDA agents on companies like Rawsome Foods back in 2011 and Amish farms over the last few years also indicate this scenario may not be too far off.

When states allow the sale of raw milk within their borders, it takes an important step toward nullifying this federal prohibition scheme in practice and effect.

As we’ve seen with marijuana and industrial hemp, an intrastate ban becomes ineffective when states ignore it and pass laws encouraging the prohibited activity anyway. The federal government lacks the enforcement power necessary to maintain its ban, and people will willingly take on the small risk of federal sanctions if they know the state will not interfere. This increases when the state actively encourages the market and nullifies federal prohibition in effect.

We’ve seen this demonstrated dramatically in states that have legalized industrial hemp. When they authorized production, farmers began growing industrial hemp, even in the face of a federal ban. Despite facing the possibility of federal prosecution, some growers were still willing to step into the void and begin cultivating the plant once the state removed its barriers.

In the same way, removing state barriers to raw milk consumption, sale, and production would undoubtedly spur the creation of new markets for unpasteurized dairy products, no matter what the feds claim the power to do.

It could ultimately nullify the interstate ban as well. If all 50 states allow raw milk, markets within the states could easily grow to the point that local sales would render the federal ban on interstate commerce pointless. And history indicates the feds do not have the resources to stop people from transporting raw milk across state lines – especially if multiple states start legalizing it. Growing markets will quickly overwhelm any federal enforcement attempts.

WHAT’S NEXT

HB467 will move to the Louisiana Senate for further consideration.

The post Louisiana House Unanimously Passes Bill To Legalize Limited Raw Milk Sales first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Louisiana House Committee Passes Bill to End State Cooperation with UN and WHO

Mike Maharrey — Wed, 01 May 2024 20:22:08 +0000

BATON ROUGE, La. (May 1, 2024) – Yesterday, a Louisiana House committee passed a bill, which already cleared the full Senate, that would prohibit state and local cooperation with rules and mandates that may be imposed by international organizations, including the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Sen. Thomas Pressly and two cosponsors introduced Senate Bill 133 (SB133) on Feb. 29. The proposed law declares, “The World Health Organization, United Nations, and the World Economic Forum shall have no jurisdiction or power within the state of Louisiana.”

The bill then takes a practical step to attempt to limit their impact in the state by barring state and local cooperation with their rules, regulations, and mandates.

“No rule, regulation, fee, tax, policy, or mandate of any kind of the World Health Organization, United Nations, and the World Economic Forum shall be enforced or implemented by the state of Louisiana or any agency, department, board, commission, political subdivision, governmental entity of the state, parish, municipality, or any other political entity.”

On April 30, the Committee on House and Governmental Affairs passed SB133 by an 8-2 vote with an amendment making the effective date immediate. The Senate previously passed SB133 by a 37-0 vote.

IN PRACTICE

It remains unclear how SB133 would play out in effect. There is no mechanism in the legislation to determine that a policy was implemented by an international agency or to distinguish between international and U.S. government mandates, or policies recommended by these international organizations, but voluntarily implemented or recommended by various government agencies in the U.S. – federal, state and local.

But there is no doubt that the enactment of the law would hinder the enforcement of any policy the state refused to cooperate with.

Based on James Madison’s advice for states and individuals in Federalist #46, a “refusal to cooperate with officers of the Union” provides an extremely effective method to render federal laws, effectively unenforceable because most enforcement actions rely on help, support, and leadership from the states.

This is just as true when it comes to international bodies – probably more. These institutions have no enforcement mechanism of their own. All of their power is based on voluntary compliance and enforcement by local jurisdictions.

Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano agreed this type of approach would be extremely effective. In a televised discussion on federal gun laws, he noted that a single state refusing to cooperate with enforcement would make federal gun laws “nearly impossible” to enforce.

The federal government relies heavily on state cooperation to implement and enforce almost all of its laws, regulations, and acts. By simply withdrawing this necessary cooperation, states can nullify in effect many federal actions. As noted by the National Governor’s Association during the partial government shutdown of 2013, “States are partners with the federal government on most federal programs.”

This enforcement problem is magnified when it comes to international bodies such as the WHO and the UN.

LEGAL BASIS

Some might argue that Louisiana is obligated to enforce WHO or UN mandates due to treaties, but this doesn’t state up to legal scrutiny.

The Supreme Court has consistently held that the federal government can’t commandeer state and local resources for its own purposes. Under the anti-commandeering doctrine, states are sovereign entities and can direct their resources as they see fit. It logically follows that international organizations can’t commander state and local resources either. Even if the U.S. government is obligated to enforce some U.N. mandate based on a treaty, it doesn’t follow that state and local governments must also enforce the same.

The anti-commandeering doctrine is based primarily on five Supreme Court cases dating back to 1842. Printz v. U.S. serves as the cornerstone.

“We held in New York that Congress cannot compel the States to enact or enforce a federal regulatory program. Today we hold that Congress cannot circumvent that prohibition by conscripting the States’ officers directly. The Federal Government may neither issue directives requiring the States to address particular problems, nor command the States’ officers, or those of their political subdivisions, to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program. It matters not whether policy making is involved, and no case by case weighing of the burdens or benefits is necessary; such commands are fundamentally incompatible with our constitutional system of dual sovereignty.”

No determination of constitutionality is necessary to invoke the anti-commandeering doctrine. State and local governments can refuse to enforce federal laws or implement federal programs whether they are constitutional or not.

WHAT’S NEXT

SB133 is now eligible for consideration in the full House. Should the chamber pass the bill, it will go back to the Senate for concurrence in the House committee amendments.

The post Louisiana House Committee Passes Bill to End State Cooperation with UN and WHO first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Alabama Senate Passes Bill to Repeal State Capital Gains Taxes on Gold and Silver

Mike Maharrey — Wed, 01 May 2024 20:16:47 +0000

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (May 1, 2024) – On Tuesday, the Alabama Senate unanimously passed a bill that would repeal the state capital gains tax on gold and silver bullion.

Sen. Tim Melson introduced Senate Bill 297 (SB297) on April 4. Alabama repealed the state sales tax on gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion in 2018 and extended the exemption last year. The passage of SB297 would take another step by effectively repealing the state capital gains tax on the exchange of gold and silver. Under the proposed law, individuals selling gold or silver bullion, or utilizing gold and silver in a transaction, could deduct any net capital gain derived from the exchange from their income for state income tax purposes.

Precious metal bullion is defined as “coins, bars or rounds containing primarily refined gold, silver, platinum, or palladium that is marked and valued primarily by its weight, purity, and content.”

On April 30, the Senate passed SB297 by a vote of 34-0.

IMPACT

Taxes on precious metal bullion erect barriers to using gold and silver as money by raising transaction costs. As Sound Money Defense League policy director Jp Cortez testified during a committee hearing on a similar bill in Wyoming in 2018, charging taxes on money itself is beyond the pale.

“In effect, states that collect taxes on the sale of precious metals are inherently saying gold and silver are not money at all.”

Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35-cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what taxes on gold and silver bullion do. By repealing the capital gains tax on the exchange of gold and silver, Alabama would take another step to treat specie as money instead of a commodity. This represents a step toward reestablishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.

“We ought not to tax money – and that’s a good idea. It makes no sense to tax money,” former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul said during testimony in support of an Arizona bill that repealed capital gains taxes on gold and silver in that state. “Paper is not money, it’s fraud,” he continued.

The impact of enacting this legislation will go beyond mere tax policy. During an event after his Senate committee testimony, Paul pointed out that it’s really about the size and scope of government.

“If you’re for less government, you want sound money. The people who want big government, they don’t want sound money. They want to deceive you and commit fraud. They want to print the money. They want a monopoly. They want to get you conditioned, as our schools have conditioned us, to the point where deficits don’t matter.”

BACKGROUND

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in Alabama are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) authorized as legal tender by Congress or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.

The Federal Reserve destroys this constitutional monetary system by creating a monopoly based on its fiat currency. Without the backing of gold or silver, the central bank can easily create money out of thin air. This not only devalues your purchasing power over time; it also allows the federal government to borrow and spend far beyond what would be possible in a sound money system. Without the Fed, the U.S. government wouldn’t be able to maintain all of its unconstitutional wars and programs. The Federal Reserve is the engine that drives the most powerful government in the history of the world.

The passage of SB297 would remove another tax barrier that hinders the use of gold and silver as money in Alabama.

Repealing taxes on gold and silver also takes the first step in the process of abolishing the Federal Reserve system by attacking it from the bottom up – pulling the rug out from under it by working to make its functions irrelevant at the state and local levels, and setting the stage to undermine the Federal Reserve monopoly by introducing competition into the monetary system.

In a paper presented at the Mises Institute, Constitutional tender expert Professor William Greene said when people in multiple states actually start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve Notes, it would effectively nullify the Federal Reserve and end the federal government’s monopoly on money.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.

WHAT’S NEXT

SB297 will now move to the full House for further consideration.

The post Alabama Senate Passes Bill to Repeal State Capital Gains Taxes on Gold and Silver first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

John Locke vs Lysander Spooner: Consent of the Governed

Michael Boldin — Wed, 01 May 2024 19:47:00 +0000

Tracing its roots back to John Locke, the Mayflower Compact – and even earlier – the “consent of the governed” was one of the most important principles in the Declaration of Independence, and was the foundation for the formation of the Constitution as well. But, as Lysander Spooner argued – the notion that “all the people” consent exists only in theory.

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Declaration of Independence

Wiki: Divine Right of Kings

Thomas Paine – Common Sense (1776)

Wiki: Duns Scotus

Declaration of Arbroath (1320)

Stewart McLaurin – The Scottish Declaration of Arbroath and the American Declaration of Independence

Maharrey: Sovereignty and Agency

Vindiciae contra tyrannos (1579)

John Milton – The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1650)

Algernon Sidney – Discourses Concerning Government (1680)

John Locke – Two Treatises, Chap IV §. 22

Natelson: The Mayflower Compact and “consent of the governed” are now 400 years old

Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

Tony Williams – Constituting America

Robert Higgs – Consent of the Governed?

Lysander Spooner – The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (1860)

Lysander Spooner – Forced Consent (1873)

Lysander Spooner – No Treason No. VI (1870)

Lysander Spooner – A Letter to Grover Cleveland (1886)

St. George Tucker – View of the Constitution of the United States (1803)

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The post John Locke vs Lysander Spooner: Consent of the Governed first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

To the Governor: Alabama Passes Bill to Prohibit Credit Card Codes to Track Firearms Purchases

TJ Martinell — Wed, 01 May 2024 18:45:53 +0000

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (May 1, 2024) – Yesterday, the Alabama House gave final approval to a bill that would prohibit financial institutions operating in the state from using a credit card merchant code to enable the tracking of firearm and ammunition purchases.

Sen. Tim Melson introduced Senate Bill 281 (SB281). Titled the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act, the legislation would “prohibit a financial institution from requiring merchants to use a merchant category code (MCC) to distinguish a firearms retailer from a general merchandise retailer or a sporting goods retailer during a firearms transaction amounting to financial surveillance and from disclosing financial information regarding the transaction.”

Yesterday, the House passed the bill by a vote of 85-5. It previously passed the Senate unanimously, 32-0. The bill now heads to Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk for her consideration.

Under the proposal, a financial institution can only disclose “protected financial information” if they get written authorization from the customer or if a court-issued subpoena requires disclosure.

Protected financial information is defined as “Any record of sale, purchase, return, or refund involving a payment card that is retrieved, characterized, generated, labeled, sorted, or grouped based on the assignment of a firearms code.”

The State Attorney General would be authorized to investigate alleged violations. Those found guilty in a court of law would be subject to a fine of no more than $10,000 per violation.

In response to legislation like SB281, the major credit card payment networks have “paused” implementation of the firearms merchant code. In an email to Reuters, a Mastercard representative said such bills would cause “inconsistency” in how the code could be applied by merchants, banks, and payment networks. The more states that ban such codes, the more likely this program gets scrapped permanently.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

Concern about the misuse of firearms databases isn’t just paranoia. The Taliban has reportedly used a firearm ownership database created by the U.S. government to track down gun owners and confiscate firearms in Afghanistan. This goes to show that even if you trust the people creating the database, it can fall into the wrong hands. In other words, the very existence of a database is a danger.

The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through fusion centers and a system known as the “information sharing environment” or ISE.

Fusion centers were sold as a tool to combat terrorism, but that is not how they are being used. The ACLU pointed to a bipartisan congressional report to demonstrate the true nature of government fusion centers: “They haven’t contributed anything meaningful to counterterrorism efforts. Instead, they have largely served as police surveillance and information sharing nodes for law enforcement efforts targeting the frequent subjects of police attention: Black and brown people, immigrants, dissidents, and the poor.”

Fusion centers operate within the broader ISE. According to its website, the ISE “provides analysts, operators, and investigators with information needed to enhance national security. These analysts, operators, and investigators…have mission needs to collaborate and share information with each other and with private sector partners and our foreign allies.” In other words, ISE serves as a conduit for the sharing of information gathered without a warrant. Known ISE partners include the Office of Director of National Intelligence which oversees 17 federal agencies and organizations, including the NSA. ISE utilizes these partnerships to collect and share data on the millions of unwitting people they track.

In practice, local data collection using ALPRs, stingrays, drones and other spy technologies create the potential for the federal government to obtain and store information on millions of Americans including phone calls, emails, web browsing history, location history, and text messages, all with no warrant, no probable cause, and without the people even knowing it.

In a nutshell, without state and local assistance, the feds have a much more difficult time gathering information. When the state limits surveillance and data collection, it means less information the feds can tap into. This represents a major blow to the surveillance state and a win for privacy.

WHAT’S NEXT

Gov. Ivey will have 6 days, excluding Sunday, to sign or veto SB281, or it becomes law without her signature.

The post To the Governor: Alabama Passes Bill to Prohibit Credit Card Codes to Track Firearms Purchases first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Louisiana House Committee Passes Bill to Make Gold and Silver Legal Tender

Mike Maharrey — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 15:26:31 +0000

BATON ROUGE, La. (April 30, 2024) – Yesterday, a Louisiana House committee passed a bill that would make gold and silver legal tender in the state.

Sen. Mark Abraham filed Senate Bill 232 (SB232) on March 1. Under the proposed law, “any gold or silver coin, specie or bullion issued by any state or the United States government as legal tender shall be recognized as legal tender in the state of Louisiana.” On April 29, the House Committee on Commerce passed SB232 by a 12-3 vote with some technical amendments. The Senate previously passed the bill by a 39-0 vote.

The bill specifies that “no person shall incur any liability for refusal to accept recognized legal tender for the payment of debts, except as provided by contract.” In practice, including the contract clause would mean if parties voluntarily agree to be paid, or to pay, in gold and silver coin or bullion, the Louisiana courts could not substitute any other thing, e.g. Federal Reserve Notes, as payment.

Enactment of this law would make Louisiana the fifth state to recognize gold and silver as legal tender. Utah led the way, reestablishing constitutional money in 2011. Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Arkansas have since joined. Practically speaking, this would allow Louisianians to use gold or silver coins as money rather than just as mere investment vehicles. In effect, it would put gold and silver on the same practical footing as Federal Reserve notes.

The effect has been most dramatic in Utah where the legal tender law opened the door for the development of a gold and silver market in the state. With some legal hurdles cleared away by the state’s legal tender law, the United Precious Metal Association (UPMA) in partnership with Alpine Gold Exchange set up the state’s first “gold bank.” The Utah Specie Legal Tender Act has also led to the creation of Goldbacks, a local, voluntary medium of exchange. Goldbacks are notes made from fractions of an ounce of physical gold. The company created a process that turns pure gold into a spendable physical form for small transactions.

BACKGROUND

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in Louisiana are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) which were authorized as legal tender by Congress, or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.

Treating silver and gold as legal tender takes the first steps against the Federal Reserve system by attacking it from the bottom up – pulling the rug out from under it by working to make its functions irrelevant at the state and local levels. It also sets the stage for the people to undermine the Federal Reserve monopoly by introducing competition into the monetary system.

The next step would be for people to start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve notes.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.

WHAT’S NEXT

SB232 is now eligible for consideration in the full House. Should the chamber pass the bill, it will go back to the Senate for concurrence in the House committee amendments.

The post Louisiana House Committee Passes Bill to Make Gold and Silver Legal Tender first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Missouri Senate Passes Bill to Treat Gold and Silver as Legal Tender

Mike Maharrey — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 22:02:02 +0000

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (April 29, 2024) – Today, the Missouri Senate passed the “Constitutional Money Act,” a bill that would treat gold and silver as legal tender and eliminate state capital gains tax on the same.

Sen. William Eigel along with Sen. Mike Moon filed Senate Bill 735 (SB735) on Dec. 1. On April 29, the Senate passed the bill by a 21-10 vote.

Under the proposed law, gold and silver would be accepted as legal tender and would be receivable in payment of all debts contracted for in the state of Missouri. The state would be required to accept gold and silver for the payment of public debts. Private debts could be settled in gold and silver at the parties’ discretion.

The Director of the Department of Revenue would be tasked with “promulgating rules on the methods of acceptance of specie legal tender as payment for any debt, tax, fee, or obligation owed.”

Practically speaking, this would allow Missourians to use gold or silver as money rather than just as mere investment vehicles. In effect, it would put gold and silver on the same footing as Federal Reserve notes.

Passage into law would make Missouri the fifth state to recognize gold and silver as legal tender. Utah led the way, reestablishing constitutional money in 2011. Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Arkansas have since joined.

The effect has been most dramatic in Utah where the legal tender law opened the door for the development of a gold and silver market in the state. With some legal hurdles cleared away by the state, the United Precious Metal Association (UPMA) in partnership with Alpine Gold Exchange set up the state’s first “gold bank.” The Utah Specie Legal Tender Act has also led to the creation of Goldbacks, a local, voluntary medium of exchange. Goldbacks are notes made from fractions of an ounce of physical gold. The company created a process that turns pure gold into a spendable physical form for small transactions.

REMOVING TAXES

SB735 would also exempt the sale of gold and silver bullion from the state’s capital gains tax.

Missouri is already one of 44 states that do not levy sales tax on gold and silver bullion. Exempting the sale of bullion from capital gains taxes takes another step toward treating gold and silver as money instead of commodities. Taxes on precious metal bullion erect barriers to using gold and silver as money by raising transaction costs. As Sound Money Defense League policy director Jp Cortez testified during a committee hearing on a similar bill in Wyoming in 2018, charging taxes on money itself is beyond the pale.

“In effect, states that collect taxes on purchases of precious metals are inherently saying gold and silver are not money at all.”

Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35-cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what a sales tax on gold and silver bullion does. By eliminating this tax on the exchange of gold and silver, Missouri would treat specie as money instead of a commodity. This represents a small step toward reestablishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.

BACKGROUND

The provisions in SB735 would treat gold and silver more like money instead of commodities. They would also lower barriers to using gold and silver in transactions, and they would help undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in Missouri are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) authorized as legal tender by Congress or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them. Passage of SB735 would allow Missourians to pay state obligations with gold and silver.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.

WHAT’S NEXT

SB735 will move to the House for further consideration. Once it is referred to a committee, it must get a hearing and pass by a majority vote before moving forward in the legislative process.

The post Missouri Senate Passes Bill to Treat Gold and Silver as Legal Tender first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Sovereignty and the Constitution: Government as Agent of the People of the States

Alan Mosley — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 18:05:07 +0000

In the American system, the people of the several states are sovereign, meaning they hold final or ultimate authority. Power flows from them to the federal government, which merely serves as their agent.

Path to Liberty: April 29, 2024

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Episode – The Law: An Intro from the Founders to Frederic Bastiat

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James Iredell – North Carolina Ratifying Convention (24 Jul 1788)

Ratification of the Constitution by Virginia (26 June 1788)

Legal Information Institute – Agency Law

St. George Tucker – View of the Constitution of the United States (1803)

John Jay: An Address to the People of the State of New York (15 Apr 1788)

John Locke – Two Treatises §. 141

James Wilson – State House Yard Speech (6 Oct 1787)

James Madison – Federalist 39

James Madison – Report of 1800

Mercy Otis Warren – Observations on the New Constitution (1788)

John Hancock – Massachusetts Ratifying Convention (6 Feb 1788)

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The Law: An Intro from the Founders to Frederic Bastiat

Michael Boldin — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 21:39:31 +0000

In his 1850 essay The Law, Bastiat railed against socialism, and argued that legitimate law isn’t just the will of politicians, but instead is based on protecting the natural rights of individuals. You can see inspiration in these views from Locke, Jefferson, Paine and more.

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Thomas Paine – Common Sense (10 Jan 1776)

Constitution Full Text

Alexander Hamilton – Federalist 83

John Jay – Address to the People of New York (1788)

James Madison – Letter to Henry Lee (1 Jan 1792)

Maryland Farmer No. 3, Part 1 (7 Mar 1788)

Samuel Adams – An address to the constituents of Massachusetts Bay Colony detailing the newly completed Massachusetts constitution (1780)

John Dickinson – Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania No. VI (1767)

Thomas Jefferson – Letter to Isaac H. Tiffany (4 Apr 1819)

Samuel Adams – The Rights of the Colonists (20 Nov 1772)

John Locke – Two Treatises §. 141

John Locke – Two Treatises §. 201

Algernon Sidney – Discourses Concerning Government (1698)

John Locke – Two Treatises §. 202

Paul Meany – An Introduction to Bastiat’s The Law

Bastiat – The Law

Benjamin Franklin – Philadelphia Conventiuon (2 June 1787)

Thomas Jefferson – Letter to Gideon Granger (13 Aug 1800)

James Madison – Speech in the House of Representatives (10 Jan 1794)

Thomas Paine – Common Sense (1776)

Thomas Jefferson – Letter to Francis W. Gilmer (7 June 1816)

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The post The Law: An Intro from the Founders to Frederic Bastiat first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Signed as Law: Nebraska Repeals State Capital Gains Taxes on the Sale of Gold and Silver

Mike Maharrey — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 21:03:00 +0000

LINCOLN, Neb. (April 26, 2024) – On Tuesday, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed a bill into law repealing state capital gains taxes on the sale of gold and silver bullion. Passage into law would relieve some of the tax burdens on investors and eliminate one barrier to using gold and silver in everyday transactions, a foundational step for people to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

Sen. Ben Hansen introduced Legislature Bill 1305 (LB1305) on Jan. 18. The extensive tax bill includes a provision that effectively repeals state capital gains taxes on the sale of gold and silver bullion, defined as “coins, bars, ingots, notes, leaf, foil, film, or commemorative medallions of gold, silver, platinum, or palladium, or a combination of these, for which the value depends primarily on its content and not the form.”

Under the Nebraska code, taxpayers use federal adjusted gross income as a starting point for state taxes. LB1305 would allow taxpayers to reduce their gross income for state purposes by the amount of any capital gains reported to the IRS on the sale of gold and silver. They would also add capital losses on the sale of the same.

LB1305 passed Nebraska’s unicameral legislature by a 49-0 vote. With Gov. Pillen’s signature, the tax provisions will go into effect for the 2025 tax year.

“Gold and silver are the only forms of currency mentioned in our Constitution and with that comes the people’s ability to use it as such without penalty from the government,” Hansen said. “Saving, and using, gold and silver is our right and one of the only checks and balances to our federal government’s unending devaluation of our paper currency. ”

LB1305 also includes a provision that excludes central bank digital currency (CBDC) from the state definition of money under the state tax code. The impact of this change is unclear, but ostensibly, it would prohibit the state from accepting tax payments in the form of CBDC and create a roadblock to its implementation in Nebraska.

KNOCKING DOWN BARRIERS

Nebraska is one of 45 states that have eliminated sales taxes on gold and silver bullion. Repealing taxes on precious metal bullion takes a step toward treating gold and silver as money instead of commodities. Taxes on precious metal bullion erect barriers to using gold and silver as money by raising transaction costs. As Sound Money Defense League policy director Jp Cortez testified during a committee hearing on a similar bill in Wyoming in 2018, charging taxes on money itself is beyond the pale.

“In effect, states that collect taxes on purchases of precious metals are inherently saying gold and silver are not money at all.”

Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35-cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what Nebraska’s capital gains tax on gold and silver bullion does. By eliminating this tax on the exchange of gold and silver, Nebraska would treat specie as money instead of a commodity. This represents a small step toward reestablishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.

“If you’re for less government, you want sound money. The people who want big government, they don’t want sound money. They want to deceive you and commit fraud. They want to print the money. They want a monopoly. They want to get you conditioned, as our schools have conditioned us, to the point where deficits don’t matter.”

Practically speaking, eliminating taxes on the sale of gold and silver cracks open the door for people to begin using specie in regular business transactions. This marks an important small step toward currency competition.

BACKGROUND

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in Nebraska are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) authorized as legal tender by Congress or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.

The passage of LB1305 removes another tax barrier that hinders the use of gold and silver as money in Nebraska.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.

The post Signed as Law: Nebraska Repeals State Capital Gains Taxes on the Sale of Gold and Silver first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Georgia Governor Signs Law to Prohibit Credit Card Codes That Track Firearms Purchases

TJ Martinell — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 02:56:07 +0000

ATLANTA, Ga. (April 25, 2024) – Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has signed a bill into law that prohibits financial institutions operating in the state from using a credit card merchant code that would enable the tracking of firearm and ammunition purchases. But the new law also has two potential loopholes that could reduce its impact.

Rep. Jason Ridley introduced House Bill 1018 (HB1018) on Jan 24. Titled the “Georgia Firearms Industry Nondiscrimination Act,” the law prohibits financial institutions from requiring the use of a firearms code that distinguishes firearms businesses from other businesses.

The law also makes it illegal for financial institutions in the state to discriminate against a firearms retailer by declining a lawful payment card transaction based solely on the assignment or non-assignment of a firearms code. HB1018 prohibits a government entity from keeping any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or owners of such firearms.

The State Attorney General is authorized to investigate alleged violations, though alleged violators would be allowed to respond within 30 days after receiving a written notice before action could be taken.

However, the law contains at least two potential loopholes via language not included in other similar laws passed in other states.

First, the prohibition on requiring the use of a firearms code is only “unless such required usage of a firearms code is based on a good faith conclusion that such action is required by applicable law or regulation.”

The second reads:

The provisions of this part shall not apply to any bank, trust company, credit union, or merchant acquirer limited purpose bank that is chartered under the laws of this state or any other state to the extent that federal law precludes or preempts or has been determined to preclude or preempt the application of the provisions of this part to any federally chartered bank, trust company, credit union, or merchant acquirer limited purpose bank.”

The bill cleared the House on Feb. 27 in a 106-60 vote, then in the Senate on March 26 in a 33-19 vote. Gov. Kemp signed the bill on April 22.

Mississippi, Idaho, North Dakota, Montana, Texas, and Florida passed similar laws during the 2023 legislative session.

IN EFFECT

In response to legislation like this, major credit card payment networks “paused” implementation of the firearms merchant code. In an email to Reuters, a Mastercard representative said such bills would cause “inconsistency” in how the code could be applied by merchants, banks and payment networks.

In September 2022, the International Standards Organization, based in Switzerland, approved a new merchant category code for firearm and ammunition merchants. In the letter to payment card networks, federal lawmakers stated that the new Merchant Category Code for firearms retailers would be “. . .the first step towards facilitating the collection of valuable financial data that could help law enforcement in countering the financing of terrorism efforts,” expressing a clear government expectation that networks will utilize the new Merchant Category Code to conduct mass surveillance of constitutionally protected firearms and ammunition purchases in cooperation with law enforcement.

The more states that ban such codes, the more likely this program gets scrapped permanently.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

Data collected from this merchant code would almost certainly end up in federal government databases.

Concern about the misuse of federal firearms databases isn’t just paranoia. The Taliban has reportedly used a firearm ownership database created by the U.S. government to track down gun owners and confiscate firearms in Afghanistan. This goes to show that even if you trust the people creating the database, it can fall into the wrong hands. In other words, the very existence of a database is a danger.

The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through fusion centers and a system known as the “information sharing environment” or ISE.

WHAT’S NEXT

The law takes effect on July 1.

The post Georgia Governor Signs Law to Prohibit Credit Card Codes That Track Firearms Purchases first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Signed as Law: Asset Forfeiture Reformed by Kansas, but Massive Federal Loophole Remains Mostly Open

Mike Maharrey — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 16:59:18 +0000

TOPEKA, Kan. (April 25, 2024) – On Tuesday, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly signed a bill into law that makes modest reforms to the state’s civil asset forfeiture process, but leaves participation in a federal program that allows state and local police to circumvent more strict state forfeiture laws mostly in tact.

The Senate Judiciary Committee introduced Senate Bill 458 (SB458) in February. The new law makes several changes to the state’s civil asset forfeiture process to modestly strengthen protections for property owners.

The House passed SB458 by a 120-0 vote and the Senate approved the measure 35-0. With Gov. Kelly’s signature, the law will go into effect as soon as it is published in the statute book.

The new law raises the burden of proof in forfeiture cases to “clear and convincing evidence.” Also, under the new forfeiture process, police will no longer be able to seize property for offenses related to the personal use of drugs. The law empowers judges to determine if a seizure is unconstitutionally excessive. It also places the burden of proof on prosecutors to prove that the seizure is proportional to the crime.

The enactment of SB458 is a step forward in Kansas, a state that had among the most lax forfeiture laws in the country, but the process still won’t require a criminal conviction before proceeding with forfeiture.

Kansas Justice Institute litigation director Sam MacRoberts told Reason that the passage of SB458 was “a great start,” and he hopes it will “cut down on some of the more abusive forfeiture cases.”

FEDERAL LOOPHOLE

SB458 takes a small step to address a federal loophole that allows police in Kansas to circumvent the more strict state process by sending cases to federal prosecutors. but it left a gaping hole wide open.

A federal program known as “Equitable Sharing” allows prosecutors to bypass more stringent state asset forfeiture laws by passing cases off to the federal government through a process known as adoption. Through this process, state or local police hand the forfeiture case to the feds to prosecute even though there was initially no federal involvement in the investigation and seizure.

State and local police can also tap into equitable sharing by working with the feds on joint task forces. About 85 percent of equitable sharing cases arise from these joint task forces, but a significant number also begin with adoption.

Law enforcement agencies can circumvent more strict state forfeiture laws by claiming cases are federal in nature. Under these arrangements, state officials simply hand cases over to a federal agency, participate in the case and then receive up to 80 percent of the proceeds. However, when states merely withdraw from participation, the federal directive loses its impact.

California faced this situation. The state has some of the strongest state-level restrictions on civil asset forfeiture in the country, but state and local police were circumventing the state process by passing cases to the feds. According to a report by the Institute for Justice, Policing for Profit, California ranked as the worst offender of all states in the country between 2000 and 2013. In other words, California law enforcement was passing off a lot of cases to the feds and collecting the loot. The state partially closed the loophole in 2016 by banning adoption. It still allows cases arising through joint task forces to be prosecuted by the feds. In those cases, state and local law enforcement agencies can only keep equitable sharing proceeds if there is a criminal conviction and the value of the property is above a $40,000 threshold.

HB458 limits adoption but allows forfeiture to occur under the federal process if the seizure was by a joint task force or if it is pursuant to a joint investigation with federal law enforcement authorities. It also allows a transfer to federal jurisdiction if “the agency makes such request in conjunction with a request for federal law enforcement authorities to adopt the criminal investigation relating to the seizure.”

While the new law places limits on adoption, it will only impact about 15 percent of equitable sharing cases. In order to fully opt the state out of equitable sharing, the legislature needs to put substantial limits on forfeitures through joint task forces.

As the Tenth Amendment Center previously reported the federal government inserted itself into the asset forfeiture debate in California. The feds clearly want the policy to continue.

Why?

We can only guess. But perhaps the feds recognize paying state and local police agencies directly in cash for handling their enforcement would reveal their weakness. After all, the federal government would find it nearly impossible to prosecute its unconstitutional “War on Drugs” without state and local assistance. Asset forfeiture “equitable sharing” provides a pipeline the feds use to incentivize state and local police to serve as de facto arms of the federal government by funneling billions of dollars into their budgets.

NECESSARY

While some people believe the Supreme Court “ended” asset forfeiture, its opinion in Timbs v. Indiana ended nothing. The court merely held that the Eighth Amendment provisions prohibiting “expressive fines” apply to the state through the incorporation doctrine. Without further action, state and federal law enforcement can still use the civil asset forfeiture process with few limits. Additionally, as law professor Ilya Somin noted, the Court left an important issue unresolved. What exactly counts as “excessive” in the civil forfeiture context?

“That is likely to be a hotly contested issue in the lower federal courts over the next few years. The ultimate effect of today’s decision depends in large part on how that question is resolved. If courts rule that only a few unusually extreme cases qualify as excessive, the impact of Timbs might be relatively marginal.”

Somin has been proved correct. Five years later, the SCOTUS decision still hasn’t limited asset forfeiture.

Going forward, opponents of civil asset forfeiture could continue to wait and see how lower federal courts will address this “over the next few years,” or they can do what several states have already taken steps to do, end the practice on a state level, and opt out of the federal equitable sharing program as well.

The post Signed as Law: Asset Forfeiture Reformed by Kansas, but Massive Federal Loophole Remains Mostly Open first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Tennessee Governor Signs Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act Into Law

TJ Martinell — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 16:55:11 +0000

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (April 23, 2024) – On Tuesday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed into law the “Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act,” a measure that prohibits financial institutions operating in the state from using a credit card merchant code that would enable the tracking of firearm and ammunition purchases.

Sen. Jack Johnson and 14 cosponsors filed Senate Bill 2223 (SB2223). It prohibits any financial institution operation in the state from requiring or permitting “the assignment of a firearms code in a way that distinguishes a firearms retailer from other retailers.” “Firearms code” is defined in the bill as “a merchant category code approved by the International Organization for Standardization or an equivalent successor organization that is specifically assigned to a firearms retailer.”

SB2223 also prohibits all state and local government entities from keeping any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or the owners of such firearms. Financial institutions are prohibited from denying a transaction based on the code.

The bill cleared the Senate on March 21 by a vote of 25-5. On April 1, the House concurred by a vote of 75-17, sending the bill to Gov. Lee’s desk, who signed it on April 23.

Mississippi, Idaho, North Dakota, Montana, Texas, and Florida passed similar laws during the 2023 legislative session.

IN EFFECT

In response to legislation like HF2464, the major credit card payment networks have “paused” implementation of the firearms merchant code. In an email to Reuters, a Mastercard representative said such bills would cause “inconsistency” in how the code could be applied by merchants, banks, and payment networks. The more states that ban such codes, the more likely this program gets scrapped permanently.

The more states that ban such codes, the more likely this program gets scrapped permanently.

The bill warns that a firearms merchant code would “have a significant chilling effect on citizens wishing to exercise their federal and state constitutional rights to keep and bear arms in Tennessee.”

The state attorney general would be authorized to investigative alleged violations of the law. Those found guilty would have 30 days to cease doing so, and if they refuse the AGO would be able to filed action in court. Upon conviction, the court would be able to impose a fine of up to $10,000 per violation.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

Data collected from this merchant code would almost certainly end up in federal government databases.

The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through fusion centers and a system known as the “information sharing environment” or ISE.

WHAT’S NEXT

SB2223 takes effect on July 1.

The post Tennessee Governor Signs Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act Into Law first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Alaska Senate Committee Passes Bill to Make Gold and Silver Legal Tender in the State

Mike Maharrey — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 19:58:50 +0000

JUNEAU, Alaska (April 24, 2024) – Yesterday, an Alaska Senate committee passed a bill to make gold and silver legal tender in the state and repeal all taxes on them. The bill previously passed the House and will now move forward in the legislative process.

Rep. Kevin McCabe (R) introduced House Bill 3 (HB3) in 2023 and it carried over to the 2024 legislative session. The proposed law would make gold and silver specie legal tender in the state, recognizing it as a medium of exchange for the payment of debts. In effect, gold and silver specie would be treated as money, rather than a mere investment vehicle, putting it on par with Federal Reserve notes in Alaska.

HB3 would also exempt the exchange of specie from a sales or use tax. Alaska does not have a state income or sales tax, but local jurisdictions can levy sales taxes. Specie is defined as gold or silver valued primarily based on its metal content and in the form of a coin or bullion that is stamped or imprinted with its weight and purity.

On April 23, the Senate State Affairs Committee passed HB3 with some amendments clarifying the definition of specie legal tender. Under the proposed law, specie legal tender would be defined as specie issued by

(1) the federal government at any time if the federal government considers the specie legal tender.

(2) a foreign government at any time if the U.S. government recognizes the government as “legitimate” and isn’t designated as a “foreign adversary.”

(3) the state government if a court of competent jurisdiction, by final and unappealable order, ruled the specie to be within state authority to designate as legal tender.

By allowing the court to designate additional specie to be used as legal tender, Alaska could free its citizens from potential supply constraints imposed by the use of only United States-minted gold and silver coins. More importantly, the people of the state of Alaska would be able to define what specie is considered constitutional tender, further distancing themselves from potential control of their competing currency by Washington D.C.

The passage of HB3 would eliminate a significant barrier to using gold and silver in everyday transactions, a foundational step for people to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

KNOCKING DOWN BARRIERS

Alaska could become the fifth state to recognize gold and silver as legal tender. Utah led the way, reestablishing constitutional money in 2011. Arkansas, Wyoming, and Oklahoma have since joined. Practically speaking, this would allow Alaskans to use gold or silver coins as money rather than just as mere investment vehicles.

Eliminating taxes on specie would take another step by removing a barrier to using gold and silver as money.

“In effect, states that collect taxes on the sale of precious metals are inherently saying gold and silver are not money at all.”

Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35-cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what taxes on gold and silver bullion do. By removing the taxes on the exchange of gold and silver, Alaska would treat specie as money instead of a commodity. This represents a step toward reestablishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.

“If you’re for less government, you want sound money. The people who want big government, they don’t want sound money. They want to deceive you and commit fraud. They want to print the money. They want a monopoly. They want to get you conditioned, as our schools have conditioned us, to the point where deficits don’t matter.”

BACKGROUND

The provisions in HB3 would treat gold and silver more like money instead of commodities. They would also lower barriers to using gold and silver in transactions, and they would help undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in Alaska are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) authorized as legal tender by Congress or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them. The enactment of HB3 would allow Alaskans to pay state obligations with gold and silver.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.

WHAT’S NEXT

HB3 previously passed the full house, and now will move to the Senate Finance Committee. There it must get a hearing and pass by a majority vote before moving forward to the full Senate.

The post Alaska Senate Committee Passes Bill to Make Gold and Silver Legal Tender in the State first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

No Permanent Alliances: Foreign Policy of Washington and Jefferson

Michael Boldin — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 19:31:40 +0000

George Washington: “It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” Thomas Jefferson: “Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.”

Path to Liberty: April 24, 2024

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George Washington – Farewell Address (19 Sept 1796)

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New Hampshire Committee Advances Bill to Prohibit Credit Card Codes to Track Firearms Purchases

TJ Martinell — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 17:04:39 +0000

CONCORD, N.H. (April 23, 2024) – Yesterday, a New Hampshire Senate committee voted to advance a bill to prohibit financial institutions operating in the state from using a credit card merchant code that would enable the tracking of firearm and ammunition purchases.

Rep. Jason Janvrin and six cosponsors introduced House Bill 1186 (HB1186) on Nov. 27. Titled the Firearm Purchaser’s Privacy Act, the proposed law would prohibit a payment card network from requiring a New Hampshire merchant to use a “firearms code” defined as “merchant category code 5723, approved in September 2022 by the International Organization for Standardization, for firearms retailers.”

The proposed law would also bar retailers from using such a code voluntarily.

For the purposes of the sale of firearms, ammunition for use in firearms, and firearms accessories, a firearms retailer may not provide a firearms code to a payment card issuer or payment card network and may only use or be assigned a merchant category code for general merchandise retailers or sporting goods retailers.

The legislation includes provisions empowering the state attorney general to enforce the law and impose civil penalties for violations.

On Feb. 13, the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee approved HB1186 with a majority “ought to pass” report by a 12-7 vote. Today, the full House passed the bill with a vote of 203-174. It was then referred to the Senate Finance Committee but later sent to the Judiciary Committee, where it received a “ought to pass” vote of 3-2 on April 22. Before the vote, the committee amended the bill to make several technical changes regarding definitions.

If passed, the bill would take effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

Mississippi, Idaho, North Dakota, Montana, Texas, and Florida passed similar laws during the 2023 legislative session.

IN EFFECT

In response to legislation like HB1186, the major credit card payment networks have “paused” implementation of the firearms merchant code. In an email to Reuters, a Mastercard representative said such bills would cause “inconsistency” in how the code could be applied by merchants, banks, and payment networks.

The more states that ban such codes, the more likely this program gets “paused” permanently.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

Data collected from this merchant code would almost certainly end up in federal government databases.

The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through fusion centers and a system known as the “information sharing environment” or ISE.

In practice, local data collection using ALPRs, stingrays, drones and other spy technologies creates the potential for the federal government to obtain and store information on millions of Americans including phone calls, emails, web browsing history, location history, and text messages, all with no warrant, no probable cause, and without the people even knowing it.

WHAT’S NEXT

HB1186 has been sent to the Senate floor, where it will be scheduled for a full chamber vote.

The post New Hampshire Committee Advances Bill to Prohibit Credit Card Codes to Track Firearms Purchases first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Iowa Governor Signs Bill That Prohibits Credit Card Codes to Track Firearms Purchases

TJ Martinell — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 16:25:31 +0000

DES MOINES, Iowa (April 23, 2024) – Last week, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that prohibits financial institutions operating in the state from requiring a credit card merchant code to track the purchases of firearms and ammunition.

The House Commerce Committee introduced House File 2464 (HF2464) on Feb. 20. The new law prohibits a financial institution operating in Iowa from requiring or assigning a firearms code that distinguishes a firearms dealer from any other retailer. “Firearms code” is defined as “a merchant category code approved by the international organization for standardization specifically for firearm dealers.” It is now also illegal to deny a transaction based solely on the acquirer’s assignment of a firearms code to the firearms retailer.

On April 11, the Senate passed HF2464 by a 45-0 vote. The House previously passed the measure 68-27. The bill was amended before passing in the Senate to remove the legal definition for “customer.” The House concurred by a vote of 73-24 on April 16. Gov. Reynolds signed it into law on April 19.

Under the law, government entities are prohibited from keeping a registry of privately owned firearms or the ownership of privately owned firearms.

The state attorney general is tasked with investigating alleged violations and given the sole authority to pursue legal action in district court if an alleged violator does not cease doing so 90 days after receiving a notice from their office. Those found guilty of violating the law are subject to a fine of no more than $1,000 per violation.

In response to legislation like HF2464, the major credit card payment networks have “paused” implementation of the firearms merchant code. In an email to Reuters, a Mastercard representative said such bills would cause “inconsistency” in how the code could be applied by merchants, banks, and payment networks. The more states that ban such codes, the more likely this program gets scrapped permanently.

BACKGROUND

In September 2022, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), based in Switzerland, approved a new merchant category code for firearm and ammunition merchants; In a letter to payment card networks, federal lawmakers stated that the new Merchant Category Code for firearms retailers would be “. . .the first step towards facilitating the collection of valuable financial data that could help law enforcement in countering the financing of terrorism efforts”, expressing a clear government expectation that networks will utilize the new Merchant Category Code to conduct mass surveillance of constitutionally protected firearms and ammunition purchases in cooperation with law enforcement;

The new Merchant Category Code will allow the banks, payment card networks, acquirers, and other entities involved in payment card processing to identify and separately track lawful payment card purchases at firearms retailers in the State of Iowa, paving the way for both unprecedented surveillance of Second Amendment activity and unprecedented information sharing between financial institutions and the government; This potential for cooperative surveillance and tracking of lawful firearms and ammunition purchases will have a significant chilling effect on citizens wishing to exercise their federal and state constitutional rights to keep and bear arms in Iowa.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through fusion centers and a system known as the “information sharing environment” or ISE.

WHAT’S NEXT

HF2464 takes effect July 1, 2024.

The post Iowa Governor Signs Bill That Prohibits Credit Card Codes to Track Firearms Purchases first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

The Failed Strategy of “Vote the Bums Out” is Making Things Even Worse

Michael Boldin — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 18:30:21 +0000

From Samuel Adams and Thomas Jefferson to Lysander Spooner – the notion that the people should submit until they can replace enough politicians to stop the government from doing what the government was never authorized to do in the first place – is only a guarantee that they’ll never stop, and it’ll keep getting worse.

Path to Liberty: April 22, 2024

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Louisiana Senate Passes Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act

TJ Martinell — Sun, 21 Apr 2024 23:34:14 +0000

BATON ROUGE, LA. (April 21, 2024) – Last week, the Louisiana Senate passed a bill that would prohibit financial institutions operating in the state from using a credit card merchant code that would enable the tracking of firearm and ammunition purchases.

Sen. Blake Miguez filed Senate Bill 301 (SB301) on March 1. Titled the “Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act,” the bill would prohibit any financial institution operation in the state from requiring or permitting “the assignment of a firearms code in a way that distinguishes a firearms retailer from other retailers.”

On April 16, the Senate passed the bill by a vote of 28-11.

“Firearms code” is defined in the bill as “a merchant category code approved by the international organization for standardization or an equivalent successor organization, and specifically assigned to a firearm retailer.”

SB301 also prohibits all state and local government entities from keeping any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or the owners of such firearms. Financial institutions would be prohibited from denying a transaction based on the code. Those found guilty in a court of violating the law would be subject to a fine not to exceed $1,000 per violation, with the court determining the amount by factors “including the financial resources of the violator and the harm or risk of harm to the rights under the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 11 of the Constitution of Louisiana, resulting from the violation.”

After the bill cleared the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and International Affairs, the Senate adopted two amendments that made several technical changes to the original bill, one of which added credit unions to the definition of financial institutions. Also, along with the state attorney general, district attorneys would be authorized to investigate alleged violations.

Mississippi, Idaho, North Dakota, Montana, Texas, and Florida passed similar laws during the 2023 legislative session.

IN EFFECT

The more states that ban such codes, the more likely this program gets scrapped permanently.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

Data collected from this merchant code would almost certainly end up in federal government databases.

The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through fusion centers and a system known as the “information sharing environment” or ISE.

WHAT’S NEXT

SB301 has been sent to the House Committee on Commerce, where it will need to receive a public hearing and a majority vote to move forward in the legislative process.

The post Louisiana Senate Passes Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Thomas Jefferson’s Prediction of Economic Meltdown and Its Relevance Today

Michael Boldin — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 18:38:13 +0000

Jefferson’s chilling warnings about unchecked fiat, paper money printing proved prophetic as the U.S. plunged into its first boom-bust economic crisis in the early 19th century.

Path to Liberty, Fast Friday Edition: April 19, 2024

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Maharrey: Thomas Jefferson’s Warnings and Predictions about the Dangers of Money-Printing

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Murray Rothbard – The Panic of 1819

Thomas Jefferson – Letter to John Adams (21 Mar 1819)

John Adams – Letter to Thomas Jefferson (24 Feb 1819)

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Kentucky Repeals Sales Taxes on Gold and Silver Bullion

Mike Maharrey — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 02:38:00 +0000

FRANKFORT, Ky. (April 18, 2024) – After the legislature overrode Gov. Andy Beshear’s line-item veto, a measure exempting the sale of precious metal bullion from the state sales tax became law. The new law will relieve some of the tax burdens on investors, and it will also eliminate one barrier to using gold and silver in everyday transactions, a foundational step for people to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

A House committee added provisions exempting bullion from the sales tax were inserted into House Bill 8 (HB8), an extensive revenue and tax bill. Under the law, the sale of currency and bullion are exempt from the state sales and use tax.

The bill defines “bullion” as “bars, ingots, or coins, which are made of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, or a combination of these metals, valued based on the content of the metal and not its form and used, or have been used, as a medium of exchange, security, or commodity by any state, the United States government, or a foreign nation.” Currency is defined as “a coin or currency made of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, or other metal or paper money that is or has been used as legal tender and is sold based on its value as a collectible item rather than the value as a medium of exchange.”

The House passed the bill 87-9 and the Senate approved the measure 34-0. Gov. Beshear signed the bill but used a line-item veto to strike out the sales tax exemption for gold and silver. The legislature overrode the vote, deeming the line-item veto illegal.

Under the state constitution, the governor only has line-item veto power on spending bills. State’s Attorney General Russell Coleman affirmed that a line-item veto power does not exist for revenue bills, giving further weight to the legislature’s action.

With the veto override, the tax exemption will go into effect on Aug. 1.

KNOCKING DOWN BARRIERS

Kentucky became the 45th state to eliminate sales taxes on gold and silver bullion. Repealing sales taxes on precious metal bullion takes a step toward treating gold and silver as money instead of commodities. Taxes on precious metal bullion erect barriers to using gold and silver as money by raising transaction costs. As Sound Money Defense League policy director Jp Cortez testified during a committee hearing on a similar bill in Wyoming in 2018, charging taxes on money itself is beyond the pale.

“In effect, states that collect taxes on purchases of precious metals are inherently saying gold and silver are not money at all.”

Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35-cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what Kentucky’s sales tax on gold and silver bullion did. By eliminating this tax on the exchange of gold and silver, New Jersey would treat specie as money instead of a commodity. This represents a small step toward reestablishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.

“We ought not to tax money – and that’s a good idea. It makes no sense to tax money,” former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul said during testimony in support an Arizona bill that repealed capital gains taxes on gold and silver in that state. “Paper is not money, it’s fraud,” he continued.

“If you’re for less government, you want sound money. The people who want big government, they don’t want sound money. They want to deceive you and commit fraud. They want to print the money. They want a monopoly. They want to get you conditioned, as our schools have conditioned us, to the point where deficits don’t matter.”

The effect has been most dramatic in Utah where the legal tender law repealed all taxes on gold and silver bullion, opening the door for the development of a gold and silver market in the state. With some legal and tax hurdles cleared away by the state, the United Precious Metal Association (UPMA) in partnership with Alpine Gold Exchange set up the state’s first “gold bank.” The Utah Specie Legal Tender Act has also led to the creation of Goldbacks, a local, voluntary medium of exchange. Goldbacks are notes made from fractions of an ounce of physical gold. The company created a process that turns pure gold into a spendable physical form for small transactions.

BACKGROUND

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in Kentucky are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) which were authorized as legal tender by Congress or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.

The passage of this tax repeal removes another of the tax barriers that hinder the use of gold and silver as money in Kentucky.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.

The post Kentucky Repeals Sales Taxes on Gold and Silver Bullion first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Benjamin Franklin’s Rules for Bringing Down Empires

Michael Boldin — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 20:28:39 +0000

With some of his best satire and sharpest wit, Franklin told the British the top-20 ways their policies would bring their empire over the American colonies to an end. Much of it sounds pretty familiar to what we face today.

Path to Liberty: April 17, 2024

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Benjamin Franklin – Letter to the Marquis De Lafayette (14 May 1781)

Rules By Which A Great Empire May Be Reduced To A Small One (11 Sept 1773)

America in Class: How Did We Get Here?

Proposal for the Great Seal of the United States (before 14 Aug 1776)

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Alaska House Committee Holds Hearing on Defend the Guard Act

Mike Maharrey — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 18:17:18 +0000

JUNEAU, Alaska (April 17, 2024) – Yesterday, an Alaska House committee held a hearing on a bill that would empower the governor to stop unconstitutional foreign combat deployments of the state’s National Guard troops.

Rep. David Eastman introduced House Bill 373 (HB373) on Feb. 20. Titled the Defend the Guard Act, the legislation would prohibit the governor or any other person from ordering a member of the state militia, including National Guard members, from being deployed “into active service to a combat zone outside the state or to perform a duty for the purpose of supporting an armed conflict outside of the United States, no matter where that duty is performed,” without authorization by the United States Congress declaring war or calling forth the militia under Article 1, Section 8, Constitution of the United States.

The bill specifies that “militia” means both the organized and unorganized militia.

On April 16, the House Military and Veterans Affairs Committee held a public hearing on HB373, an important first step in the legislative process.

Committee members asked several questions about the bill. The first was regarding the legality of the measure. Eastman did an excellent job explaining that the governing Supreme Court case, Perpich v. U.S. Department of Defense, only limited a governor’s ability to block overseas deployments for training purposes.

Tenth Amendment Center national communications director Mike Maharrey testified, pointing out that the National Guard units were meant to serve as a domestic defense force, not as reserve units for overseas military actions. He emphasized that the role of the militia is clearly delineated in the Constitution and isn’t subject to reinterpretation based on pragmatic arguments. Maharrey also pointed out that constant overseas deployment makes Guard units unavailable to fulfill their responsibilities at home.

One committee member implied the bill should be opposed because “a lot of Guard members want to go into combat and limiting that could hurt recruitment.” One has to wonder what the desires of National Guard members have to do with the state reasserting control over its Guard troops and keeping the federal government within its constitutional war powers.

IN PRACTICE

National Guard troops have played significant roles in all modern overseas conflicts, with over 650,000 deployed since 2001. Military.com reports that “Guard and Reserve units made up about 45 percent of the total force sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, and received about 18.4 percent of the casualties.” More specifically, Alaska National Guard troops have participated in missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and other countries.

Since none of these missions have been accompanied by a Constitutional declaration of war, nor were they in pursuance of any of the three conditions set forth in Article 1 Sec. 8, the Defend the Guard Act would have prohibited those combat deployments.

BACKGROUND

Article I, Section 8, Clauses 15 and 16 make up the “militia clauses” of the Constitution. Clause 16 authorizes Congress to “provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia.” Through the Dick Act of 1903, Congress organized the militia into today’s National Guard, limiting the part of the militia that could be called into federal service rather than the “entire body of people,” which makes up the totality of the “militia.” Thus, today’s National Guard is governed by the “militia clauses” of the Constitution, and this view is confirmed by the National Guard itself.

Clause 15 delegates to Congress the power to provide for “calling forth the militia” in three situations only: 1) to execute the laws of the union, 2) to suppress insurrections, and 3) to repel invasions.

During state ratifying conventions, proponents of the Constitution, including James Madison and Edmund Randolph, repeatedly assured the people that this power to call forth the militia into federal service would be limited to those very specific situations, and not for general purposes, like helping victims of a disease outbreak or engaging in “kinetic military actions.”

Justice Joseph Story affirmed this limited role of the state militia in Martin v. Mott (1827).

“The power thus confided by Congress to the President is doubtless, of a very high and delicate nature. A free people are naturally jealous of the exercise of military power, and the power to call the militia into actual service is certainly felt to be one of no ordinary magnitude. But it is not a power which can be executed without a correspondent responsibility. It is, in its terms, a limited power, confined to cases of actual invasion or of imminent danger of invasion.”

RETURNING TO THE CONSTITUTION

The founding generation was careful to ensure the president wouldn’t have the power to drag the United States into endless wars. James Madison made this clear in a letter to Thomas Jefferson.

The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, & most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.

Congress has abrogated its responsibility and allowed the president to exercise almost complete discretion when it comes to war. Passage of Defend the Guard legislation would pressure Congress to do its constitutional duty.

West Virginia Rep. Pat McGeehan served as an Air Force intelligence officer in Afghanistan and has sponsored similar legislation in his state.

“For decades, the power of war has long been abused by this supreme executive, and unfortunately our men and women in uniform have been sent off into harm’s way over and over,” he said. “If the U.S. Congress is unwilling to reclaim its constitutional obligation, then the states themselves must act to correct the erosion of constitutional law.”

Passage of Defend the Guard would also force the federal government to only use the Guard for the three expressly delegated purposes in the Constitution, and at other times to remain where the Guard belongs, at home, supporting and protecting their home state.

While getting this bill passed won’t be easy and will face fierce opposition from the establishment, it certainly is, as Daniel Webster once noted, “one of the reasons state governments even exist.”

Webster made this observation in an 1814 speech on the floor of Congress where he urged actions similar to the Florida Defend the Guard Act. He said, “The operation of measures thus unconstitutional and illegal ought to be prevented by a resort to other measures which are both constitutional and legal. It will be the solemn duty of the State governments to protect their own authority over their own militia, and to interpose between their citizens and arbitrary power. These are among the objects for which the State governments exist.”

WHAT’S NEXT

HB373 needs to be brought up for a vote and pass the House Military and Veterans Affairs Committee by a majority vote before moving forward in the legislative process.

The post Alaska House Committee Holds Hearing on Defend the Guard Act first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

To the Governor: Iowa Passes Bill That Would Prohibit Credit Card Codes to Track Firearms Purchases

TJ Martinell — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 22:00:22 +0000

DES MOINES, Iowa (April 16, 2024) – Today, the Iowa House gave final approval to a bill that would prohibit financial institutions operating in the state from requiring a credit card merchant code to track the purchases of firearms and ammunition.

The House Commerce Committee introduced House File 2464 (HF2464) on Feb. 20. The bill would prohibit a financial institution operating in Iowa from requiring or assigning a firearms code that distinguishes a firearms dealer from any other retailer. “Firearms code” is defined as “a merchant category code approved by the international organization for standardization specifically for firearm dealers.” It would also be illegal to based solely on the acquirer’s assignment of a firearms code to the firearms retailer.

On April 11, the Senate passed HF2464 by a 45-0 vote. The House previously passed the measure 68-27. The bill was amended before passing in the Senate to remove the legal definition for “customer.” Today, the House concurred by a vote of 73-24, sending it to the Governor’s desk next.

Under the proposed law, government entities would also be prohibited from keeping a registry of privately owned firearms or the ownership of privately owned firearms.

The state attorney general would be tasked with investigating alleged violations and given the sole authority to pursue legal action in district court if an alleged violator does not cease doing so 90 days after receiving a notice from their office. Those found guilty of violating the law would be subject to a fine of no more than $1,000 per violation.

BACKGROUND

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through fusion centers and a system known as the “information sharing environment” or ISE.

WHAT’S NEXT

HF2464 will now go to Gov. Kim Reynolds. She will have 30 days to sign or veto the bill after the legislature adjourns, or the bill is pocket vetoed.

The post To the Governor: Iowa Passes Bill That Would Prohibit Credit Card Codes to Track Firearms Purchases first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Gold and Silver as Legal Tender Approved by Second Missouri House Committee

Mike Maharrey — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 15:48:36 +0000

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (April 16, 2024) – Yesterday, a second Missouri House committee passed the “Constitutional Money Act,” a bill that would make gold and silver legal tender in the state, and take several other important steps toward treating the precious metals as money.

The legislation would designate gold and silver as legal tender and eliminate the state capital gains tax on the sale of both The proposed law also includes provisions authorizing the state to invest in gold or silver “less than or equal to one percent of total state investment holdings” and to expressly bar any state agency, department, or political subdivision from seizing gold or silver bullion.

Rep. Bill Hardwick introduced House Bill 1955 (HB1955), and Rep. Michael Davis introduced House Bill 2257 (HB2257). The House Financial Institutions Committee combined them into one bill when it approved the measure earlier this month.

On April 15, the House Rules – Legislative Oversight Committee passed HB1955 by a 7-1 vote.

The bill is a companion to SB735 filed by Sen. William Eigel. It passed a Senate committee in January, and is scheduled for debate and vote in the full Senate starting on April 16.

LEGAL TENDER AND TAX REFORMS

Under the proposed law, legal tender is defined as “a recognized medium of exchange for the payment of debts, public charges, taxes, or dues that is: (a) Authorized by the United States Congress under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States; or (b) Authorized by Missouri law under Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution of the United States.”

“Specie legal tender” is defined as “specie coin issued by the federal government at any time, and any other specie.” Specie is defined as “bullion fabricated into products of uniform shape, size, design, content, weight, and purity that are suitable for or customarily used as currency, as a medium of exchange, or as the medium for purchase, sale, storage, transfer, or delivery of gold or silver in retail or wholesale transactions.”

These definitions would effectively include gold and silver in the definition of legal tender in the state.

HB1955 would prohibit the state and its political subdivisions from:

Enforcing or attempting to enforce any federal acts, laws, executive orders, administrative orders, rules, regulations, statutes, or ordinances infringing on the right of a person to keep and use specie legal tender as provided in this section;

Restrict in any way the ability of a person to acquire specie legal tender or use specie legal tender in transactions; or enact any law discriminating or favoring one means of legal tender in the course of a transaction over another means of legal tender.

The House committee sub removed provisions specifically requiring state agencies to accept gold and silver as payment. Instead, it would create a study committee to examine “the possibility of the state accepting gold and silver in payment of obligations to the state.”

Practically speaking, the passage of HB1955 would allow Missourians to use gold or silver as money rather than just as mere investment vehicles. In effect, it would put gold and silver on the same footing as Federal Reserve notes.

The effect has been most dramatic in Utah where the legal tender law opened the door for the development of a gold and silver market in the state. With some legal hurdles cleared away by the state, the United Precious Metal Association (UPMA) in partnership with Alpine Gold Exchange set up the state’s first “gold bank.” The Utah Specie Legal Tender Act has also led to the creation of Goldbacks, a local, voluntary medium of exchange. Goldbacks are notes made from fractions of an ounce of physical gold. The company created a process that turns pure gold into a spendable physical form for small transactions.

HB1955 would also exempt the sale of gold and silver bullion from the state’s capital gains tax.

Missouri is already one of 45 states that do not levy sales tax on gold and silver bullion. Exempting the sale of bullion from capital gains taxes takes another step toward treating gold and silver as money instead of commodities. Taxes on precious metal bullion erect barriers to using gold and silver as money by raising transaction costs. As Sound Money Defense League policy director Jp Cortez testified during a committee hearing on a similar bill in Wyoming in 2018, charging taxes on money itself is beyond the pale.

“In effect, states that collect taxes on purchases of precious metals are inherently saying gold and silver are not money at all.”

Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35-cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what a sales tax on gold and silver bullion does. By eliminating this tax on the exchange of gold and silver, Missouri would treat specie as money instead of a commodity. This represents a small step toward reestablishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.

BACKGROUND

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in Missouri are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) which were authorized as legal tender by Congress, or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.

Repealing taxes on gold and silver and treating both as legal tender also takes the first steps against the Federal Reserve system by attacking it from the bottom up – pulling the rug out from under it by working to make its functions irrelevant at the state and local levels. It also sets the stage for the people to undermine the Federal Reserve monopoly by introducing competition into the monetary system.

The next step would be for people to start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve notes.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.

WHAT’S NEXT

HB1955 now needs to be scheduled on the House floor for debate and a vote.

The post Gold and Silver as Legal Tender Approved by Second Missouri House Committee first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Rhode Island Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Bill to Legalize Raw Milk Sales; Foundation to Nullify Federal Prohibition Scheme

Alan Mosley — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 22:53:45 +0000

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Apr. 15, 2024) – Last week, a Rhode Island Senate committee held a hearing on a bill that would legalize raw milk sales in the state. Passage into law would take an important step toward further rejecting a federal prohibition scheme in practice and effect.

A coalition of senators led by Sen. Gordon Rogers introduced Senate Bill 2295 (S2295) on Feb. 12. The legislation would amend statutes governing the production and sale of milk to legalize the retail sale of raw milk. Under the proposed law, raw milk could be sold in the state subject to the same regulations and permitting requirements as pasteurized milk.

On April 10, the Senate Environment and Agriculture Committee held a hearing on S2295. This is an important first step in the legislative process. The committee recommended the measure be held for further study. This common procedural move in the Rhode Island legislature allows committee members to analyze the bill before it comes up for a vote.

Under current law, raw milk sales are prohibited although the state allows raw milk distribution through herd-share agreements.

During the 2023 legislative session, Idaho and North Dakota expanded their raw milk sales and Iowa legalized limited raw milk sales.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROHIBITION

FDA officials insist that unpasteurized milk poses a health risk because of its susceptibility to contamination from cow manure, a source of E. coli.

“It is the FDA’s position that raw milk should never be consumed,” agency spokeswoman Tamara N. Ward said in November 2011.

Not only do the feds ban the transportation of raw milk across state lines, but they also claim the authority to ban unpasteurized milk within the borders of a state.

When states allow the sale of raw milk within their borders, it takes an important step toward nullifying this federal prohibition scheme in practice and effect.

In the same way, removing state barriers to raw milk consumption, sale and production would undoubtedly spur the creation of new markets for unpasteurized dairy products, no matter what the feds claim the power to do.

WHAT’S NEXT

S2295 needs to be brought up for a vote in the Senate Environment and Agriculture Committee and pass by a majority before moving forward in the legislative process.

The post Rhode Island Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Bill to Legalize Raw Milk Sales; Foundation to Nullify Federal Prohibition Scheme first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Tax Resistance and the Birth of American Independence

Michael Boldin — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 21:23:34 +0000

86 years and a day before the “shot heard ’round the world” – the people of Boston and surrounding towns rose up and overthrew the royal governor in a dispute that started over tax resistance to arbitrary power.

Path to Liberty: April 15, 2024

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Lysander Spooner – An Essay on the Trial by Jury (1852)

John Dickinson – Broadside Against the Stamp Act (1765)

Historic Ipswich: The “Birthplace of American Independence”

Wiki: Edmund Andros

John G. Palfrey: The New-England Revolution of the 17th Century (May 1864)

Complaints of great wrongs done under the ill government of Sir Edmund Androsse governor in New-England, in the year 1687

Wiki: Revolt of 1689

The declaration of the gentlemen, merchants, and inhabitants of Boston, and the countrey adjacent (18 Apr 1689)

Response from William III

Lysander Spooner – No Treason No. VI (1870)

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Alabama Committees Pass Bills to Prohibit Credit Card Codes to Track Firearms Purchases

TJ Martinell — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 19:12:57 +0000

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (April 12, 2024) – On Wednesday, Alabama House and Senate committees passed the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act, a bill that would prohibit financial institutions operating in the state from using a credit card merchant code to enable the tracking of firearm and ammunition purchases.

Rep. Shane Stringer introduced House Bill 389 (HB389) on April 2. Sen. Tim Melson introduced the companion bill (SB281). The legislation would “prohibit a financial institution from requiring merchants to use a merchant category code (MCC) to distinguish a firearms retailer from a general merchandise retailer or a sporting goods retailer during a firearms transaction amounting to financial surveillance and from disclosing financial information regarding the transaction.”

A financial institution can only disclose “protected financial information” if they get written authorization from the customer or if a court-issued subpoena requires disclosure.

The State Attorney General would be authorized to investigate alleged violations. Those found guilty in a court of law would be subject to a fine of no more than $10,000 per violation.

On April 10, the House Public Safety and Homeland Security passed HB389 and the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee passed SB281, an important early step in the legislative process.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through fusion centers and a system known as the “information sharing environment” or ISE.

WHAT’S NEXT

HB389 will now move to the House Financial Services committee, where it will need a public hearing and a majority vote before it can advance in the legislative process. SB281 was reported out of committee and sent to the Senate, where it will be eligible for further debate and vote, or re-assignment to another committee.

The post Alabama Committees Pass Bills to Prohibit Credit Card Codes to Track Firearms Purchases first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

First for Independence: The Halifax Resolves of 1776

Michael Boldin — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 18:50:38 +0000

April 12, 1776 – the first official action by one of the colonies in full support of declaring independence. The Halifax Resolves were also the first example of a colony-wide assembly admitting that reconciliation with the British was no longer an option.

Path to Liberty, Fast Friday Edition: April 12, 2024

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North Carolina Provincial Congress

Third North Carolina Provincial Congress

Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge

NCPedia – Moores Creek Bridge

Kellie Slappey – North Carolina History

Halifax and the Revolution

The journal of the proceedings of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina, held at Halifax on the fourth day of April 1776

Full Text – Minutes of the Provincial Congress of North Carolina

Adam Zielinski – American Battlefield Trust

Jason Mandresh – Founder of the Day

American Battlefield Trust – Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence

The Constitutional Authority of the 2nd Continental Congress

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Signed by the Governor: Tennessee Law Excludes CBDC from Definition of Money and Deposit Account

Mike Maharrey — Fri, 12 Apr 2024 17:39:24 +0000

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (April 12, 2024) – Yesterday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a bill into law that expressly excludes a central bank digital currency (CBDC) from the definition of money and a “deposit account” under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), creating potentially significant roadblocks to its use as such in the Volunteer State.

Sen. Bill Powers introduced Senate Bill 2219 (SB2219) on Jan. 30. Rep. Jeff Burkhart introduced the companion, House Bill 1901 (HB1901) in the House. Under the Tennessee UCC, “money” currently means “a medium of exchange currently authorized or adopted by a domestic or foreign government. The term includes a monetary unit of account established by an intergovernmental organization or by agreement between two or more countries.”

SB2219 adds the term “does not include any central bank digital currency” to that definition.

An amendment in the Senate Commerce Labor Committee added language to also exclude CBDC from the definition of a “deposit account.”

On April 1, the House passed it by a 77-14 vote. The Senate previously passed the measure by a 31-0 vote. With Gov. Bill Lee’s signature, the law goes into effect on July 1.

Similar legislation has already been signed as law in Indiana, Florida, South Dakota, and Utah.

IN PRACTICE

It remains unclear how changing the definition of money in the UCC would play out in practice against a CBDC if the federal government attempts to implement one.

The UCC is a set of uniformly adopted state laws governing commercial transactions in the U.S. According to the Uniform Law Commission, “Because the UCC has been universally adopted, businesses can enter into contracts with confidence that the terms will be enforced in the same way by the courts of every American jurisdiction. The resulting certainty of business relationships allows businesses to grow and the American economy to thrive. For this reason, the UCC has been called ‘the backbone of American commerce.’”

Passage of this legislation would, as noted by one opponent of the legislation, put a CBDC “into the bucket of ‘general intangibles” – rather than money, and wouldn’t ban its use completely.

But it could still potentially gum up the works and make it difficult for the government to fully implement a CBDC.

Opponents of the strategy and supporters of CBDC generally take the position that states can’t do anything to stop a CBDC, since – according to their view – under the supremacy clause “any federal law on this point will automatically override state law.”

We’ve heard this song and dance on other issues before. That’s what they said when California legalized medical marijuana in 1996. It didn’t quite turn out that way.

In the ramp-up to the 1996 vote on Proposition 215, voters were repeatedly told that legalization of marijuana, even for limited medical purposes, was a fruitless effort, since, under the supremacy clause, any such state law would be automatically overridden by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 (CSA). At best, opponents told Californians, the state would end up in a costly, and losing court effort.

But despite those warnings, Californians voted yes, setting in motion the massive state-level movement we see today, where a growing majority of states have legalized what the federal government prohibits. Ultimately, the federal government will likely have to back down, even if just to save face, because it has become impossible to fully enforce its federal prohibition over this massive state and individual resistance.

A similar scenario played out in response to the REAL ID Act of 2005. The national ID system still isn’t fully up and running more than 17 years after the “final deadline” for full implementation.

Why not?

Because a significant number of states decided not to participate, drug their feet, or in some cases, simply provide residents with a choice to opt out. Federal officials have confirmed that state-level roadblocks to implementation are the primary reason for the continuing delays.

“Roadblock” is likely how this and other state-based strategies to oppose a CBDC will play out. This is part of James Madison’s four-step blueprint for how states can stop federal programs.

But, as can be seen so far with issues like marijuana and the REAL ID Act, whether a federal program is implemented or not ultimately gets down to the number of roadblocks put up by states, and more importantly, the willingness of the people to participate, or not.

CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCIES (CBDC)

Digital currencies exist as virtual banknotes or coins held in a digital wallet on your computer or smartphone. The difference between a central bank (government) digital currency and peer-to-peer electronic cash such as bitcoin is that the value of the digital currency is backed and controlled by the government, just like traditional fiat currency.

Government-issued digital currencies are sold on the promise of providing a safe, convenient, and more secure alternative to physical cash. We’re also told it will help stop dangerous criminals who like the intractability of cash. But there is a darker side – the promise of control.

At the root of the move toward government digital currency is “the war on cash.” The elimination of cash creates the potential for the government to track and even control consumer spending.

Imagine if there was no cash. It would be impossible to hide even the smallest transaction from the government’s eyes. Something as simple as your morning trip to Starbucks wouldn’t be a secret from government officials. As Bloomberg put it in an article published when China launched a digital yuan pilot program in 2020, digital currency “offers China’s authorities a degree of control never possible with physical money.”

The government could even “turn off” an individual’s ability to make purchases. Bloomberg described just how much control a digital currency could give Chinese officials.

The PBOC has also indicated that it could put limits on the sizes of some transactions, or even require an appointment to make large ones. Some observers wonder whether payments could be linked to the emerging social-credit system, wherein citizens with exemplary behavior are ‘whitelisted’ for privileges, while those with criminal and other infractions find themselves left out. ‘China’s goal is not to make payments more convenient but to replace cash, so it can keep closer tabs on people than it already does,’ argues Aaron Brown, a crypto investor who writes for Bloomberg Opinion.”

Economist Thorsten Polleit outlined the potential for Big Brother-like government control with the advent of a digital euro in an article published by the Mises Wire. As he put it, “the path to becoming a surveillance state regime will accelerate considerably” if and when a digital currency is issued.

In 2022, the Federal Reserve released a “discussion paper” examining the pros and cons of a potential US central bank digital dollar. According to the central bank’s website, there has been no decision on implementing a digital currency, but this pilot program reveals the idea is further along than most people realized.

The post Signed by the Governor: Tennessee Law Excludes CBDC from Definition of Money and Deposit Account first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Rhode Island House Committee Holds Hearing on Defend the Guard Act

Mike Maharrey — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 03:16:45 +0000

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (April 10, 2024) – On Tuesday, a Rhode Island House committee held a hearing on the Defend the Guard Act, a bill that would require the governor to stop unconstitutional foreign combat deployments of the state’s National Guard troops.

Rep. David Place and three cosponsors introduced House Bill 7389 (H7389) on Jan. 31. The legislation would prohibit the governor from releasing any unit or member of the Rhode Island National Guard into “active duty combat” unless Congress has passed an official declaration of war or has taken an official action under article I, § 8, clause 15 of the Constitution to explicitly call forth the Rhode Island National Guard or any member of the Guard for the enumerated purposes to expressly execute the laws of the united states, repel an invasion, or suppress an insurrection.

The bill does not define “active duty combat.”

On April 9, the House State Government and Elections Committee held a hearing on H7389. This is an important first step in the legislative process. The committee recommended the measure be held for further study. This common procedural move in the Rhode Island legislature allows committee members to analyze the bill before it comes up for a vote.

The passage of H7389 would take a step toward reasserting state control over its Guard troops.

IN PRACTICE

National Guard troops have played significant roles in all modern overseas conflicts, with over 650,000 deployed since 2001. Military.com reports that “Guard and Reserve units made up about 45 percent of the total force sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, and received about 18.4 percent of the casualties.” More specifically, Rhode Island National Guard troops have participated in missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and other countries.

BACKGROUND

Justice Joseph Story affirmed this limited role of the state militia in Martin v. Mott (1827).

“The power thus confided by Congress to the President is doubtless, of a very high and delicate nature. A free people are naturally jealous of the exercise of military power, and the power to call the militia into actual service is certainly felt to be one of no ordinary magnitude. But it is not a power which can be executed without a correspondent responsibility. It is, in its terms, a limited power, confined to cases of actual invasion or of imminent danger of invasion.”

RETURNING TO THE CONSTITUTION

The founding generation was careful to ensure the president wouldn’t have the power to drag the United States into endless wars. James Madison made this clear in a letter to Thomas Jefferson.

The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, & most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.

West Virginia Rep. Pat McGeehan served as an Air Force intelligence officer in Afghanistan and has sponsored similar legislation in his state.

“For decades, the power of war has long been abused by this supreme executive, and unfortunately our men and women in uniform have been sent off into harm’s way over and over,” he said. “If the U.S. Congress is unwilling to reclaim its constitutional obligation, then the states themselves must act to correct the erosion of constitutional law.”

WHAT’S NEXT

H7389 needs to be brought up for a vote in the House State Government and Elections Committee and pass by a majority before moving forward in the legislative process.

The post Rhode Island House Committee Holds Hearing on Defend the Guard Act first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Ohio Bill Would Take Steps to Treat Gold and Silver as Money

Mike Maharrey — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 03:14:49 +0000

COLUMBUS, Ohio (April 10, 2024) – A bill introduced in the Ohio House would take several steps to treat gold and silver as money, including requiring the state to accept gold and silver as payment, repealing the state capital gains tax on gold and silver, and requiring the state to hold bullion reserves.

Rep. Riordan McClain and Rep. William Seitz introduced House Bill 482 (HB481) on April 8. The legislation would require the state to accept “allocated bullion or specie” as payment for any debt, tax, fee, or obligation owed. “Allocated bullion or specie” is defined as bullion or specie that is stored in a secure facility and is specifically segregated, or allocated, to a particular investor. “Specie” is defined as “gold and silver coin that is issued by the United States.”

While not explicitly declaring gold and silver legal tender in Ohio, the enactment of HB481 would take a significant step in that direction.

Utah led the way, reestablishing constitutional money in 2011. Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Arkansas have since joined.

The effect has been most dramatic in Utah where the legal tender law opened the door for the development of a gold and silver market in the state. With some legal hurdles cleared away by the state, the United Precious Metal Association (UPMA) in partnership with Alpine Gold Exchange set up the state’s first “gold bank.” The Utah Specie Legal Tender Act has also led to the creation of Goldbacks, a local, voluntary medium of exchange. Goldbacks are notes made from fractions of an ounce of physical gold. The company created a process that turns pure gold into a spendable physical form for small transactions.

HB481 would also require the state treasurer to keep gold and silver reserves greater than or equal to 2 percent of all state funds.

Holding gold and silver would allow the state of Ohio to shield its assets and hedge against rapidly depreciating Federal Reserve notes. Holding gold and silver in reserve would also create a pathway for Ohio to maintain financial independence should the U.S. dollar collapse, a very real possibility as the world moves away from the greenback as its reserve currency.

Ohio is already one of 44 states that do not levy a sales tax on gold or silver bullion. The passage of HB481 would take another step by effectively repealing the state capital gains tax on the exchange of gold and silver. In other words, individuals selling gold or silver bullion, or utilizing gold and silver in a transaction, would no longer be subject to state income taxes on the exchange.

“In effect, states that collect taxes on the sale of precious metals are inherently saying gold and silver are not money at all.”

Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35-cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what taxes on gold and silver bullion do. By removing the taxes on the exchange of gold and silver, Ohio would treat specie as money instead of a commodity. This represents a step toward reestablishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.

“If you’re for less government, you want sound money. The people who want big government, they don’t want sound money. They want to deceive you and commit fraud. They want to print the money. They want a monopoly. They want to get you conditioned, as our schools have conditioned us, to the point where deficits don’t matter.”

BACKGROUND

The provisions in HB481 would treat gold and silver more like money instead of commodities. They would also lower barriers to using gold and silver in transactions, and they would help undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in Ohio are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) authorized as legal tender by Congress or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them. Passage of HB481 would allow Ohioans to pay state obligations with gold and silver.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.

WHAT’S NEXT

At the time of this report, HB481 had not been referred to a committee. Once it receives a committee assignment, it must get a hearing and pass by a majority vote before moving forward in the legislative process.

The post Ohio Bill Would Take Steps to Treat Gold and Silver as Money first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

New Hampshire Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Defend the Guard Act

Mike Maharrey — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 19:43:38 +0000

CONCORD, N.H. (April 10, 2024) – Yesterday, a New Hampshire Senate committee held a hearing on the Defend the Guard Act – a bill that already passed the House earlier this year. If passed into law, it would require the governor to stop unconstitutional foreign combat deployments of the state’s National Guard troops.

Rep. John Potucek introduced House Bill 229 (HB229) on Jan. 9 with a bipartisan coalition of cosponsors. The legislation would prohibit the governor from releasing any unit or member of the New Hampshire National Guard into “active duty combat” unless specific constitutional requirements is met.

The United States Congress has passed an official declaration of war or has taken an official action pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 15 of the United States Constitution to explicitly call forth the New Hampshire national guard and any member thereof for the enumerated purposes to expressly execute the laws of the union, repel and invasion, or suppress an insurrection.

“Active duty combat” is defined as performing the following services in the active federal military service of the United States:

Participation in an armed conflict under Title 10 of the United States Code
Performance of a hazardous service relating to an armed conflict in a foreign state under Title 10 of the United States Code.

“Official declaration of war” is defined as “an official declaration of war made by the United States Congress pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States Constitution.”

The House passed HB229 in January. In a post on X, Bring Our Troops Home praised the vote, noting, “The largest legislative body in the English-speaking world has just struck an incredible blow against the DC empire.”

On April 9, the Senate Finance Committee began the process of moving the legislation through that chamber with a public hearing. This is an important first step in the legislative process.

IN PRACTICE

Guard troops have played significant roles in all modern overseas conflicts, with over 650,000 deployed since 2001. Military.com reports that “Guard and Reserve units made up about 45 percent of the total force sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, and received about 18.4 percent of the casualties.” More specifically, New Hampshire National Guard troops have participated in missions in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Bosnia, and elsewhere.

Since none of these missions have been accompanied by a Constitutional declaration of war, the Defend the Guard Act would have prohibited those deployments.

BACKGROUND

Article I, Section 8, Clauses 15 and 16 make up the “militia clauses” of the Constitution. Clause 16 authorizes Congress to “provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia.” Through the Dick Act of 1903, Congress organized the militia into today’s National Guard, limiting the part of the militia that could be called into federal service rather than the “entire body of people,” which makes up the totality of the “militia.” Thus, today’s National Guard is governed by the “militia clauses” of the Constitution, and this view is confirmed by the National Guard itself.

RETURNING TO THE CONSTITUTION

The founding generation was careful to ensure the president wouldn’t have the power to drag the United States into endless wars. James Madison made this clear in a letter to Thomas Jefferson.

The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, & most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.

West Virginia Rep. Pat McGeehan served as an Air Force intelligence officer in Afghanistan and has sponsored similar legislation in his state.

“For decades, the power of war has long been abused by this supreme executive, and unfortunately our men and women in uniform have been sent off into harm’s way over and over,” he said. “If the U.S. Congress is unwilling to reclaim its constitutional obligation, then the states themselves must act to correct the erosion of constitutional law.”

WHAT’S NEXT

The Senate Finance Committee needs to bring HB229 up for a vote in executive session. An “ought to pass” recommendation in committee would significantly improve its passage in the Senate.

The post New Hampshire Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Defend the Guard Act first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Sound Money Success: The Utah Case Study

Michael Boldin — Wed, 10 Apr 2024 19:24:08 +0000

Since 2011 – a combination of state laws and human action has built what is likely the most robust foundation for the advancement of gold and silver as money in the United Sates.

Path to Liberty: April 10, 2024

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Show Archives

Benjamin Franklin – Letter to Dumas (18 May 1779)

George Washington – Letter to Jabez Bowen (9 Jan 1787)

Episode: Tyranny 101: How the Federal Reserve Powers the Monster State

Maharrey – Utah’s Step-By-Step Strategy in Support of Sound Money

Thomas Jefferson – Letter to Rev. Charles Clay (27 Jan 1790)

2011 – Utah Legal Tender Act

2012 – Specie Legal Tender Act

Utah Expands Legal Tender in the State

United Precious Metals Association

Alpine Gold Exchange

Goldback.com

Welcoming the Utah Goldback

More Goldback states
Nevada 2020
New Hampshire 2020
Wyoming 2022
South Dakota 2023

2022 – Utah Law Exempts the Sale of “Goldbacks” from State Sales Tax

2024 – Utah Authorizes State Gold and Silver Reserves

2024 – Utah Excludes CBDC from State Definition of Legal Tender

Samuel Adams – Candidus, Boston Gazette (14 Oct 1771)

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To the Governor: Maryland Bill to Put Some Limits on Police Use of Facial Recognition

Mike Maharrey — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 18:23:48 +0000

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (April 9, 2024) – Yesterday, the Maryland House and Senate unanimously gave final approval to a bill that would place some limits on government use of facial recognition technology.

Sen. Charles Sydnor introduced Senate Bill 193 (SB182) on Jan. 10. Rep. David Moon introduced the companion bill, House Bill 338 (HB338), a week later. The proposed law would limit the use of facial recognition to the investigation of certain crimes, including “crimes of violence,” human trafficking, child abuse, child pornography, certain weapons crimes, and a criminal act “involving circumstances presenting a substantial and ongoing threat to public safety or national security.” When used in such an investigation, facial recognition could not be used as the sole basis to establish probable cause.

Results generated by facial recognition could only be introduced as evidence in a criminal proceeding to establish probable cause or a positive identification in connection with a warrant or at a preliminary hearing.

SB182/HB338 would ban the use of facial recognition on individuals “engaged in activity protected under the United States Constitution, the Maryland Constitution, or the Maryland Declaration of Rights” unless there is reasonable suspicion to believe the individual has committed a crime. It would also prohibit using facial recognition on a sketch or manually produced image, and it would ban the use of facial recognition for live or real-time identification.

While passage into law would not end government use of facial recognition in Maryland, it would set the foundation by placing limits on the technology and preventing ongoing surveillance using facial recognition.

The bill went to a conference committee to hammer out slight differences in the House and Senate versions. The House version would have barred local governments from imposing stricter limits on facial recognition than those in state laws. The conference committee withdrew that amendment.

On April 8, the Senate approved the conference committee report by a 45-0 vote. The House approved the measure by a 136-0 vote. The bill now moves to Gov. Wes Moore’s desk for his consideration.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

A 2019 report revealed that the federal government has turned state driver’s license photos into a giant facial recognition database, putting virtually every driver in America in a perpetual electronic police lineup. The revelations generated widespread outrage, but the story wasn’t new. The federal government has been developing a massive facial recognition system for years.

The FBI rolled out a nationwide facial recognition program in the fall of 2014, with the goal of building a giant biometric database with pictures provided by the states and corporate friends.

In 2016, the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law released “The Perpetual Lineup,” a massive report on law enforcement use of facial recognition technology in the U.S. You can read the complete report at perpetuallineup.org. The organization conducted a year-long investigation and collected more than 15,000 pages of documents through more than 100 public records requests. The report paints a disturbing picture of intense cooperation between the federal government, and state and local law enforcement to develop a massive facial recognition database.

“Face recognition is a powerful technology that requires strict oversight. But those controls, by and large, don’t exist today,” report co-author Clare Garvie said. “With only a few exceptions, there are no laws governing police use of the technology, no standards ensuring its accuracy, and no systems checking for bias. It’s a wild west.”

Despite the outrage generated by these reports, Congress has done nothing to roll back this facial recognition program.

There are many technical and legal problems with facial recognition, including significant concerns about the accuracy of the technology, particularly when reading the facial features of minority populations. During a test run by the ACLU of Northern California, facial recognition misidentified 26 members of the California legislature as people in a database of arrest photos.

With facial recognition technology, police and other government officials can track individuals in real time. These systems allow law enforcement agents to use video cameras and continually scan everybody who walks by. According to the report, several major police departments have expressed an interest in this type of real-time tracking. Documents revealed agencies in at least five major cities, including Los Angeles, either claimed to run real-time face recognition off of street cameras, bought technology with the capability, or expressed written interest in buying it.

In all likelihood, the federal government heavily involves itself in helping state and local agencies obtain this technology. The feds provide grant money to local law enforcement agencies for a vast array of surveillance gear, including ALPRs, stingray devices, and drones. The federal government essentially encourages and funds a giant nationwide surveillance net and then taps into the information via fusion centers and the Information Sharing Environment (ISE).

Reports that the Berkeley Police Department in cooperation with a federal fusion center deployed cameras equipped to surveil a “free speech” rally and Antifa counterprotests provided the first solid link between the federal government and local authorities in facial recognition surveillance.

In a nutshell, without state and local cooperation, the feds have a much more difficult time gathering information. The passage of state laws and local ordinances banning and limiting facial recognition eliminates one avenue for gathering facial recognition data. Simply put, data that doesn’t exist cannot be entered into federal databases.

WHAT’S NEXT

Gov. Moore will have 30 days from the date SB182/HB338 is transmitted to his office to sign or veto the legislation. If he takes no action, it will become law without his signature.

The post To the Governor: Maryland Bill to Put Some Limits on Police Use of Facial Recognition first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Alabama Bill Would Repeal State Capital Gains Taxes on Gold and Silver

Mike Maharrey — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 11:44:44 +0000

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (April 9, 2024) – A bill introduced in the Alabama Senate would repeal the state capital gains tax on gold and silver bullion.

Sen. Tim Melson introduced Senate Bill 297 (SB297) on April 4. The legislation would repeal the state capital gains tax on the “exchange of precious metal billion.”

Alabama repealed the state sales tax on gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion in 2018 and extended the exemption last year.

The passage of SB297 would take another step by effectively repealing the state capital gains tax on the exchange of gold and silver. In other words, individuals selling gold or silver bullion, or utilizing gold and silver in a transaction, would no longer be subject to state income taxes or sales taxes on the exchange.

“In effect, states that collect taxes on the sale of precious metals are inherently saying gold and silver are not money at all.”

Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35-cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what taxes on gold and silver bullion do. By removing the taxes on the exchange of gold and silver, Iowa would treat specie as money instead of a commodity. This represents a step toward reestablishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.

“If you’re for less government, you want sound money. The people who want big government, they don’t want sound money. They want to deceive you and commit fraud. They want to print the money. They want a monopoly. They want to get you conditioned, as our schools have conditioned us, to the point where deficits don’t matter.”

BACKGROUND

The passage of SB297 would remove another tax barrier that hinders the use of gold and silver as money in Alabama.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.

WHAT’S NEXT

SB297 was referred to the Senate Finance and Taxation General Fund Committee where it must get a hearing and pass by a majority vote before moving forward in the legislative process.

The post Alabama Bill Would Repeal State Capital Gains Taxes on Gold and Silver first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Louisiana Senate Passes Bill to Make Gold and Silver Legal Tender

Mike Maharrey — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 23:39:32 +0000

BATON ROUGE, La. (April 8, 2024) – Today, the Louisiana Senate unanimously passed a bill that would make gold and silver legal tender in the state. Passage into law would set the stage for the people to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

Sen. Mark Abraham filed Senate Bill 232 (SB232) on March 1. Under the proposed law, “any gold or silver coin or specie issued by any state or the United States government as legal tender shall be recognized as legal tender in the state of Louisiana.”

The bill specifies that “no person shall incur any liability for refusal to accept recognized legal tender for the payment of debts, except as provided by contract.” In practice, including the contract clause would mean if parties voluntarily agree to be paid, or to pay, in gold and silver coin, the Louisiana courts could not substitute any other thing, e.g. Federal Reserve Notes, as payment.

On April 8, the Senate passed SB232 by a 39-0 vote.

BACKGROUND

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in Louisiana are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) which were authorized as legal tender by Congress, or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.

The next step would be for people to start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve notes.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.

WHAT’S NEXT

SB232 will now move to the House for further consideration. After assignment to a House committee, the bill must get a hearing and pass by a majority vote before moving forward in the legislative process.

The post Louisiana Senate Passes Bill to Make Gold and Silver Legal Tender first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Alabama Bills Would Prohibit Credit Card Codes to Track Firearms Purchases

TJ Martinell — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 19:31:35 +0000

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (April 8, 2024) – Two bills filed in the Alabama House and Senate would prohibit financial institutions operating in the state from using a credit card merchant code that would enable the tracking of firearm and ammunition purchases.

Rep. Shane Stringer introduced House Bill 389 (HB389) on April 2, and Sen. Tim Melson introduced Senate Bill 281 (SB281) on April 4. Titled the “Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act,” the bills would prohibit a financial institution operating in Alabama from “requiring merchants to use a merchant category code (MCC) to distinguish a firearms retailer from a general merchandise retailer or a sporting goods retailer during a firearms transaction amounting to financial surveillance and from disclosing financial information regarding the transaction.”

Under the proposed law, a financial institution could only disclose “protected financial information” if they get written authorization from the customer or if a court-issued subpoena requires disclosure.

The bills would prohibit both public and private entities from “keeping any record of privately owned firearms or registry of the owner of those firearms.”

Under both bills, the State Attorney General would be authorized to investigate alleged infractions. Those found guilty in court of violating the law would be subject to a civil penalty of no more than $10,000 per infraction. In enacted, both bills would take effect in October.

The legislation would also bar retailers in the state from voluntarily providing a firearms code to a payment card issuer or payment network, and they could only legally use or assign a merchant category code for general merchandise retailers or sporting goods retailers.

IN EFFECT

In response to legislation like HB389/SB281 the major credit card payment networks have “paused” implementation of the firearms merchant code. In an email to Reuters, a Mastercard representative said such bills would cause “inconsistency” in how the code could be applied by merchants, banks, and payment networks.

The more states that ban such codes, the more likely this program gets scrapped permanently.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through fusion centers and a system known as the “information sharing environment” or ISE.

Fusion centers were sold as a tool to combat terrorism, but that is not how they are being used. The ACLU pointed to a bipartisan congressional report demonstrating the true nature of government fusion centers: “They haven’t contributed anything meaningful to counterterrorism efforts. Instead, they have largely served as police surveillance and information sharing nodes for law enforcement efforts targeting the frequent subjects of police attention: Black and brown people, immigrants, dissidents, and the poor.”

WHAT’S NEXT

SB281 has been referred to the Senate Committee on Banking and Insurance, while HB389 has been referred to the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee. Both bills will need to receive a public hearing and a majority vote of committee members before they can advance through the legislative process.

The post Alabama Bills Would Prohibit Credit Card Codes to Track Firearms Purchases first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

A Fatal Error: A Single Step is a Step Too Far

Michael Boldin — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 18:27:09 +0000

Supporting one version of an unconstitutional government program over another – because it seems to be the “least offensive” option – is not only what leading founders called a “fatal error,” but it also sets a precedent for more of the same, and worse.

Path to Liberty: April 8, 2024

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James Otis, Jr. – Freeborn American (27 Apr 1767)

John Dickinson – Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania No. IX (1767)

John Dickinson – Broadside Against the Stamp Act (1765)

Raul Lopez – Knox News

Thomas Jefferson – Letter to Albert Gallatin (6 June 1817)

James Madison – Letter to James Robertson, Jr. (20 Apr 1831)

John Dickinson – Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania No. VII (1767)

Thomas Jefferson – Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank (15 Feb 1791)

James Madison – Speech in the House of Representatives (10 Jan 1794)

James Madison – Santo Domingan Refugees (10 Jan 1794)

John Dickinson – Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania No. X (1767)

Samuel Adams – Candidus, Boston Gazette (9 Dec 1771)

TAC Post on X

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Louisiana Bills Would Make Gold and Silver Legal Tender

Mike Maharrey — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 22:23:25 +0000

BATON ROUGE, La. (April 5, 2024) – Bills introduced in the Louisiana House and Senate would make gold and silver legal tender in the state, and establish state-issued gold and silver-backed transactional currencies. Passage would set the foundation for the people to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

Rep. Raymond Crews introduced House Bill 929 (HB929) on April 2. The proposed law would require the treasurer to promulgate rules providing for the regulation of gold and silver bullion as currency, under which gold and silver bullion would be recognized as legal tender for all transactional purposes.

The impact of the bill would be similar to legislation pending in the Louisiana Senate.

Passage into law would make Louisiana the fifth state to recognize gold and silver as legal tender. Utah led the way, reestablishing constitutional money in 2011. Wyoming, Oklahoma, and Arkansas have since joined. Practically speaking, this would allow Louisianians to use gold or silver coins as money rather than just as mere investment vehicles. In effect, it would put gold and silver on the same practical footing as Federal Reserve notes.

GOLD AND SILVER-BACKED TRANSACTIONAL CURRENCY

Sen. Valerie Hodges introduced Senate Bill 485 (SB485) on April 2. Rep. Kathy Edmonston introduced a house companion, House Bill 960 (HB960) in the House on the same day. The legislation would create a state-run platform to facilitate an electronic transactional currency fully backed by gold and silver.

“In establishing the currency, the treasurer shall establish a means to ensure that a person who holds the currency may use the currency as legal tender in payment of debt or readily transfer or assign the currency to any other person or state by electronic means.”

Specie gold and silver bullion backing the currency would be stored in an “approved” bullion depository which could include a state bullion depository, the Texas Bullion Depository, or a similar depository established in another state, or a private vendor located in Louisiana.

In practice, the passage of SB485/HB960 would allow any person or business to transact business using a debit card that seamlessly converts gold and silver to fiat currency in the background. Private individuals and entities would be able to purchase goods and services using assets in an approved depository in the same way they use cash today. Doing so has the potential to open the market to sound money in day-to-day transactions.

Making gold and silver available for regular, daily transactions by the general public creates the potential for a wide-reaching effect. Professor William Greene is an expert on constitutional tender and said in a paper for the Mises Institute that when people in multiple states actually start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve notes, it would effectively nullify the Federal Reserve and end the federal government’s monopoly on money.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a ‘reverse Gresham’s Law’ effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes).

“As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Gresham’s Law holds that “bad money drives out good.” For example, when the U.S. government replaced silver quarters and dimes with coins made primarily of less valuable copper, the cheap coins drove the silver out of circulation. People hoarded the more valuable silver coins and spent the less valuable copper money. So, how do you reverse Gresham?

The key is to make it easier to use gold and silver in everyday transactions. The reason bad money drives out good is that governments put up barriers to using sound money in day-to-day life. That makes it more costly to spend gold and silver and incentivizes hoarding. When you remove barriers, you level the playing field and allow gold and silver to compete head-to-head with Federal Reserve notes. On an even playing field, gold and silver beat fiat money every time.

In most states, debts and taxes must either get paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars), authorized as legal tender by Congress, or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.”

The creation of a transactional gold and silver currency would take another step toward that constitutional requirement, ignored for decades in every state. Such a tactic would undermine the monopoly of the Federal Reserve System by introducing competition into the monetary system.

WHAT’S NEXT

SB485 was referred to the Committee on Senate and Governmental Affairs. HB929 and HB960 were referred to the House Committee on Commerce. All three bills must get a hearing and pass their respective committees by a majority vote before moving forward in the legislative process.

The post Louisiana Bills Would Make Gold and Silver Legal Tender first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Rhode Island Committee Holds Hearing on Bill to Reform Asset Forfeiture, But Federal Loophole Would Remain

Mike Maharrey — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 20:23:33 +0000

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (April 5, 2024) – Yesterday, a Rhode Island House Committee held a hearing on a bill that would require a criminal conviction before proceeding with asset forfeiture under the state’s Controlled Substance Act. However, the legislation leaves a loophole open that would allow police to continue using asset forfeiture by partnering with the feds.

Rep. David Place and a bipartisan coalition of six cosponsors introduced House Bill 8105 (H8105) on March 27. The proposed law would end civil asset forfeiture under the state’s Uniform Controlled Substance Act and replace it with a criminal process requiring a conviction before prosecutors could proceed with forfeiture.

On April 4, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on H8105 and recommended the measure be held for further study. This common procedural move in the Rhode Island legislature allows committee members to analyze the bill before it comes up for a vote.

FEDERAL LOOPHOLE

While the enactment of H8105 would significantly reform the state’s asset forfeiture process, it would leave a loophole allowing police in Rhode Island to circumvent the more strict state process by sending cases to federal prosecutors.

The House Judiciary Committee should amend the current legislation with the following language to close the loophole and opt the state out of equitable sharing.

A state or local law enforcement agency shall not transfer or offer for adoption property, seized under State law, to a federal agency for the purpose of forfeiture under 18 U.S. Code Chapter 46, or other federal law.

A joint task force of a law enforcement agency and a federal agency shall transfer seized property to the prosecuting authority for forfeiture under this chapter.

The joint task force may transfer seized property to the U.S. Department of Justice for forfeiture under federal law if the seized property includes U.S. currency that exceeds $100,000.

A law enforcement agency is prohibited from accepting payment or distribution of any kind from the federal government if the federal government requires seized property that includes U.S. currency less than $100,000 be transferred to the federal government for forfeiture under federal law

Very few cases exceed the $100,000 threshold.

As the Tenth Amendment Center previously reported the federal government inserted itself into the asset forfeiture debate in California. The feds clearly want the policy to continue.

Why?

NECESSARY

“That is likely to be a hotly contested issue in the lower federal courts over the next few years. The ultimate effect of today’s decision depends in large part on how that question is resolved. If courts rule that only a few unusually extreme cases qualify as excessive, the impact of Timbs might be relatively marginal.”

Somin has been proved correct. Five years later, the SCOTUS decision still hasn’t limited asset forfeiture.

Going forward, opponents of civil asset forfeiture could continue to wait and see how lower federal courts will address this “over the next few years,” or they can do what a number of states have already taken steps to do, end the practice on a state level, and opt out of the federal equitable sharing program as well.

WHAT’S NEXT

H8105 needs to be brought up for a vote in the House Judiciary Committee. It must pass by a majority before moving forward in the legislative process.

The post Rhode Island Committee Holds Hearing on Bill to Reform Asset Forfeiture, But Federal Loophole Would Remain first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Firearm Financial Privacy: Nullification Status Report

Michael Boldin — Fri, 05 Apr 2024 19:57:50 +0000

Originally implemented by the IRS – gun-control advocates want to use “Merchant Category Codes” to track purchases of firearms, firearm accessories and ammunition. But the state-level 2nd Amendment Financial Privacy Act has shut those plans downs – at least for now.

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To the Governor: Maryland Bill Would Place Limits on ALPR Data Sharing

Mike Maharrey — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 17:39:03 +0000

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (April 4, 2024) – Yesterday, the Maryland Senate gave final approval to a bill that would expand current restrictions on the use of automatic license plate readers (ALPR), and place limits on the sharing and selling of data collected. It now moves to Gov. Wes Moore’s desk for his consideration.

Del. Scott Phillps and four cosponsors introduced House Bill 1081 (HB1081) on Feb. 7. Maryland law already puts limits on the use of ALPRs. Law enforcement agencies can only use captured ALPR data for “the investigation, detection, or analysis of a crime or a violation of the Maryland vehicle laws or the operation of terrorist or missing or endangered person searches or alerts.” HB1081 would take another step by limiting the sharing of captured ALPR data.

The legislation would expand the definition of historical ALPR data to include “any data collected by an automatic license plate reader system and stored through cloud computing.” This would include data collected and stored by third-party vendors.

The bill would prohibit Maryland law enforcement agencies and vendors contracted by these agencies from selling historical ALPR data. The language specifically includes “the sale of subscriptions or licenses to access data.” In effect, this would prohibit third-party vendors operating ALPRs in Maryland from allowing subscribers to their services to access Maryland ALPR data.

Additionally, HB1081 would bar vendors contracted by Maryland law enforcement agencies from accessing Maryland ALPR data unless access is “expressly requested and authorized by the law enforcement agency.”

The proposed law would also prohibit a Maryland law enforcement agency or a vendor contracted by a Maryland law enforcement agency from uploading data to any other law enforcement agency or entity “regardless of whether the agency or entity is located inside or outside the state.”

Law enforcement agencies around the country are increasingly using private companies such as Flock Safety to run ALPR systems for them. Not only does the contracting agency have access to data collected by these companies, but every law enforcement agency with a subscription to the service can access data from every other agency contracted with the company. In effect, these private companies create massive databases of ALPR data accessible by federal and state police departments across the country. The enactment of HB1081 would specifically limit the sharing of and access to data collected by these private companies.

On April 3, the Senate passed HB1081 by a 47-0 vote. The House previously passed the measure 119-17.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the federal government, via the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), tracks the location of millions of vehicles through data provided by ALPRs operated on a state and local level. They’ve engaged in this for nearly a decade, all without a warrant, or even public notice of the policy.

State and local law enforcement agencies operate most of these tracking systems, paid for by federal grant money. The DEA then taps into the local database to track the whereabouts of millions of people – for the “crime” of driving – without having to operate a huge network itself.

ALPRs can scan, capture, and record thousands of license plates every minute and store them in massive databases, along with date, time, and location information.

Records obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) through open records requests encompassed information compiled by 200 law enforcement agencies that utilize ALPRs. The data revealed more than 2.5 billion license plate scans in just two years (2016 and 2017). In 2019 alone, 82 agencies in California collected more than 1 billion license plate scans using ALPRs. Yet according to EFF, 99.9 percent of this surveillance data was not actively related to an investigation when it was collected.

Perhaps more concerning, this gigantic sample of license plate scans reveals that 99.5 percent of this data was collected regardless of whether the vehicle or its owner was suspected of being involved in criminal activity. On average, agencies share this data with a minimum of 160 other agencies. In some cases, agencies share this data with as many as 800 other agencies.

Private companies contribute to the proliferation of ALPR databases. In late 2019, Rekor Systems announced that they had launched the Rekor Public Safety Network (RPSN) which gives law enforcement real-time access to license plates.

“Any state or local law enforcement agency participating in the RPSN will be able to access real-time data from any part of the network at no cost. The Company is initially launching the network by aggregating vehicle data from customers in over 30 states. With thousands of automatic license plate reading cameras currently in service that capture approximately 150 million plate reads per month, the network is expected to be live by the first quarter of 2020.”

ALPR systems run by Flock Saftey have also proliferated across the U.S. If there are Flock cameras in your town, every law enforcement agency in the country that subscribes to the Flock system can tap into your local data.

Police generally configure ALPRs to store the photograph, the license plate number, and the date, time, and location of a vehicle’s license plate, which is bad enough. But according to records obtained by the ACLU via a Freedom of Information Act request, these systems also capture photographs of drivers and their passengers.

With the FBI rolling out a nationwide facial-recognition program in the fall of 2014, and the federal government building a giant biometric database with pictures provided by the states and corporate friends, the feds can potentially access stored photographs of drivers and passengers, along with detailed data revealing their location and activities. With this kind of information, government agents can easily find individuals without warrants or oversight, for any reason whatsoever.

Since a majority of federal license plate tracking data comes from state and local law enforcement, laws banning or even restricting ALPR use are essential. As more states pass such laws, the end result becomes more clear. No data equals no federal license plate tracking program.

The enactment of HB1081 would take a step toward putting a dent in federal plans to continue location tracking and expanding its facial recognition program. The less data that states make available to the federal government, the less ability it has to track people in Maryland and elsewhere.

WHAT’S NEXT

Gov. Moore will have 30 days to sign or veto HB1081. If he takes no action, it will become law without his signature.

The post To the Governor: Maryland Bill Would Place Limits on ALPR Data Sharing first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

To the Governor: Tennessee Passes Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act

Michael Boldin — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 17:17:02 +0000

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (April 4, 2024) – On Monday, the Tennessee House gave final approval to the “Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act,” a bill to prohibit financial institutions operating in the state from using a credit card merchant code that would enable the tracking of firearm and ammunition purchases.

Sen. Jack Johnson and 14 cosponsors filed Senate Bill 2223 (SB2223). It would prohibit any financial institution operation in the state from requiring or permitting “the assignment of a firearms code in a way that distinguishes a firearms retailer from other retailers.”

“Firearms code” is defined in the bill as “a merchant category code approved by the International Organization for Standardization or an equivalent successor organization that is specifically assigned to a firearms retailer.”

SB2223 also prohibits all state and local government entities from keeping any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or the owners of such firearms. Financial institutions would be prohibited from denying a transaction based on the code.

The bill cleared the Senate on March 21 by a vote of 25-5. On April 1, the House concurred by a vote of 75-17, sending the bill to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his consideration.

Mississippi, Idaho, North Dakota, Montana, Texas, and Florida passed similar laws during the 2023 legislative session.

IN EFFECT

The more states that ban such codes, the more likely this program gets scrapped permanently.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

Data collected from this merchant code would almost certainly end up in federal government databases.

The feds can share and tap into vast amounts of information gathered at the state and local level through fusion centers and a system known as the “information sharing environment” or ISE.

WHAT’S NEXT

Gov. Lee will have 10 days (excluding Sundays) from the date SB2223 is transmitted to his office to sign or veto the bill. If he takes no action, it will become law without his signature.

The post To the Governor: Tennessee Passes Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Case Study: Utah vs the Surveillance State

Michael Boldin — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 20:40:08 +0000

For more than a decade, starting in 2013, the Utah legislature has incrementally built some of the most robust privacy protections in the country with a step-by-step approach. Over that time, Utah chipped away at the surveillance state, passing at least eight separate laws limiting surveillance.

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2022 – Utah Law Expands Limits on Drone Surveillance

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Massachusetts Committee Passes Bill to Limit Automated License Plate Reader Data Use and Retention

Mike Maharrey — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 20:30:32 +0000

BOSTON, Mass. (April 3, 2024) – On Monday, a Massachusetts committee passed a bill that would limit the use of data collected by automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) in the state. The proposed law would also place roadblocks in the way of a federal program using states to help track the location of millions of everyday people through pictures of their license plates.

Rep. Sarah Peake, Rep. James O’Day, and Sen. Jason Lewis introduced House Bill 3404 (H3404) last year and it carried over to the 2024 legislative session. The proposed law would prohibit “persons acting under color of state law” from doing any of the following:

Using an ALPR system to track or otherwise monitor activity protected by Articles II or XVI of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights or the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Retaining ALPR data longer than 14 days except in connection with a specific criminal investigation based on articulable facts linking the data to a crime.
Disclosing, selling, or permitting access to ALPR data except as required in a judicial proceeding.
Accessing ALPR data from other governmental or non-governmental entities except pursuant to a valid search warrant.

Under the proposed law, toll collection technologies in Massachusetts could only be used to identify the location of a vehicle for tolling purposes. H3404 would require law enforcement agencies to get a warrant or a production order before accessing ALPR data collected in connection with toll collection unless there was an imminent risk of serious physical injury, death, or abduction and such data is necessary to solve such a situation.

Any ALPR data collected in violation of the law could not be admitted, offered, or cited by any governmental entity for any purpose in any criminal, civil, or administrative proceeding.

In effect, the enactment of H3404 would limit the retention and sharing of ALPR data and help prevent it from entering into permanent federal databases.

On April 1, the Joint Committee on Transportation passed H3404. A vote total was not available at the time of this report.

IMPACT ON FEDERAL PROGRAMS

ALPRs can scan, capture, and record thousands of license plates every minute and store them in massive databases, along with date, time, and location information.

“Any state or local law enforcement agency participating in the RPSN will be able to access real-time data from any part of the network at no cost. The Company is initially launching the network by aggregating vehicle data from customers in over 30 states. With thousands of automatic license plate reading cameras currently in service that capture approximately 150 million plate reads per month, the network is expected to be live by the first quarter of 2020.”

Passage of H3404 would take a step toward putting a dent in federal plans to continue location tracking and expanding its facial recognition program. The less data that states make available to the federal government, the less ability it has to track people in Massachusetts and elsewhere.

WHAT’S NEXT

H3404 will now move to the House Ways and Means Committee where it must get a hearing and pass by a majority vote before moving forward in the legislative process.

The post Massachusetts Committee Passes Bill to Limit Automated License Plate Reader Data Use and Retention first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Missouri House Committee Passes Bill to Make Gold and Silver Legal Tender in the State

Mike Maharrey — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 19:52:19 +0000

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (April 3, 2024) – Yesterday, a Missouri House committee passed the “Constitutional Money Act,” a bill that would make gold and silver legal tender in the state, and take other important steps toward treating them as money.

Rep. Bill Hardwick introduced House Bill 1955 (HB1955), and Rep. Michael Davis introduced House Bill 2257 (HB2257). The provisions in the bills are similar but use slightly different language.

The legislation would take several steps to treat gold and silver as money in Missouri and encourage its use as such, including designating it as legal tender and eliminating the state capital gains tax on the sale of gold and silver. The proposed law also includes provisions authorizing the state to invest in gold or silver “less than or equal to one percent of total state investment holdings” and to expressly bar any state agency, department, or political subdivision from seizing gold or silver bullion.

On April 2, the House Financial Institutions Committee merged HB2257 and HB1955 and passed the legislation by an 8-3 vote.

The bill is a companion to SB735 filed by Sen. William Eigel. It passed a Senate committee in January.

LEGAL TENDER AND TAX REFORMS

These definitions would effectively include gold and silver in the definition of legal tender in the state.

HB1955 would prohibit the state and its political subdivisions from:

Enforcing or attempting to enforce any federal acts, laws, executive orders, administrative orders, rules, regulations, statutes, or ordinances infringing on the right of a person to keep and use specie legal tender as provided in this section;

Restrict in any way the ability of a person to acquire specie legal tender or use specie legal tender in transactions; or enact any law discriminating or favoring one means of legal tender in the course of a transaction over another means of legal tender.

Practically speaking, the passage of HB1955would allow Missourians to use gold or silver as money rather than just as mere investment vehicles. In effect, it would put gold and silver on the same footing as Federal Reserve notes.

The effect has been most dramatic in Utah where the legal tender law opened the door for the development of a gold and silver market in the state. With some legal hurdles cleared away by the state, the United Precious Metal Association (UPMA) in partnership with Alpine Gold Exchange set up the state’s first “gold bank.” The Utah Specie Legal Tender Act has also led to the creation of Goldbacks, a local, voluntary medium of exchange. Goldbacks are notes made from fractions of an ounce of physical gold. The company created a process that turns pure gold into a spendable physical form for small transactions.

HB1955 would also exempt the sale of gold and silver bullion from the state’s capital gains tax.

“In effect, states that collect taxes on purchases of precious metals are inherently saying gold and silver are not money at all.”

Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35-cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what a sales tax on gold and silver bullion does. By eliminating this tax on the exchange of gold and silver, Missouri would treat specie as money instead of a commodity. This represents a small step toward reestablishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.

BACKGROUND

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in Missouri are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) which were authorized as legal tender by Congress, or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.

The next step would be for people to start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve notes.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.

WHAT’S NEXT

HB1955/HB2257 will now move to the House Rules committee, where it will first need to pass by a majority vote before the full House can consider it.

The post Missouri House Committee Passes Bill to Make Gold and Silver Legal Tender in the State first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

Michigan Bill Would Repeal State Capital Gains Taxes on Gold and Silver

Mike Maharrey — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 23:50:01 +0000

LANSING, Mich. (April 2, 2024) – A bill introduced in the Michigan House would eliminate state capital gains taxes on gold and silver bullion and investment coins.

Rep. Josh Schriver introduced House Bill 5577 (HB5577) on March 13. Repealing the state capital gains tax on gold and silver bullion would relieve some of the tax burdens on investors, and would also eliminate one barrier to using gold and silver in everyday transactions, a foundational step for people to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.

HB5577 defines “bullion” as “gold, silver, or platinum in a bulk state, where its value depends on its content rather than its form, with a purity of not less than 900 parts per 1,000.”

The legislation would also remove capital gains taxes on “investment coins” defined as “numismatic coins or other forms of money and legal tender manufactured of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, or other metal and issued by the United States government or a foreign government with a fair market value greater than the face value of the coins.”

Michigan is already one of 44 states that do not levy a sales tax on gold or silver bullion. The passage of HB5577 would take another step by effectively repealing the state capital gains tax on the exchange of gold and silver. In other words, individuals selling gold or silver bullion, or utilizing gold and silver in a transaction, would no longer be subject to state income taxes on the exchange.

“In effect, states that collect taxes on the sale of precious metals are inherently saying gold and silver are not money at all.”

Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35-cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what taxes on gold and silver bullion do. By removing the taxes on the exchange of gold and silver, Iowa would treat specie as money instead of a commodity. This represents a step toward reestablishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.

“If you’re for less government, you want sound money. The people who want big government, they don’t want sound money. They want to deceive you and commit fraud. They want to print the money. They want a monopoly. They want to get you conditioned, as our schools have conditioned us, to the point where deficits don’t matter.”

BACKGROUND

The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in Michigan are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) authorized as legal tender by Congress or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.

The passage of HB5577 would remove one of the tax barriers that hinder the use of gold and silver as money in Michigan.

“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.

WHAT’S NEXT

HB5577 was referred to the House Committee On Government Operations where it must get a hearing and pass by a majority vote before moving forward in the legislative process.

The post Michigan Bill Would Repeal State Capital Gains Taxes on Gold and Silver first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

To the Governor: Tennessee Bill to Exclude CBDC From the Definition of Money

Mike Maharrey — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 16:02:11 +0000

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (April 2, 2024) – Yesterday, the Tennessee House gave final approval to a bill that would expressly exclude a central bank digital currency (CBDC) from the definition of money and a “deposit account” under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), creating potentially significant roadblocks to its use as such in the Volunteer State.

SB2219 would add the term “does not include any central bank digital currency” to that definition.

An amendment in the Senate Commerce Labor Committee added language to also exclude CBDC from the definition of a “deposit account.”

On April 1, the House substituted SB2219 for HB1901 and passed it by a 77-14 vote. The Senate previously passed the measure by a 31-0 vote. The bill now goes to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his consideration.

Similar legislation has already been signed as law in Indiana, Florida, South Dakota, and Utah.

IN PRACTICE

It remains unclear how changing the definition of money in the UCC would play out in practice against a CBDC if the federal government attempts to implement one.

But it could still potentially gum up the works and make it difficult for the government to fully implement a CBDC.

We’ve heard this song and dance on other issues before. That’s what they said when California legalized medical marijuana in 1996. It didn’t quite turn out that way.

Why not?

“Roadblock” is likely how this and other state-based strategies to oppose a CBDC will play out. This is part of James Madison’s four-step blueprint for how states can stop federal programs.

CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCIES (CBDC)

At the root of the move toward government digital currency is “the war on cash.” The elimination of cash creates the potential for the government to track and even control consumer spending.

The government could even “turn off” an individual’s ability to make purchases. Bloomberg described just how much control a digital currency could give Chinese officials.

The PBOC has also indicated that it could put limits on the sizes of some transactions, or even require an appointment to make large ones. Some observers wonder whether payments could be linked to the emerging social-credit system, wherein citizens with exemplary behavior are ‘whitelisted’ for privileges, while those with criminal and other infractions find themselves left out. ‘China’s goal is not to make payments more convenient but to replace cash, so it can keep closer tabs on people than it already does,’ argues Aaron Brown, a crypto investor who writes for Bloomberg Opinion.”

WHAT’S NEXT

Gov. Lee will have 10 days (excluding Sundays) from the date SB2219 is transmitted to his office to sign or veto the bill. If he takes no action, it will become law without his signature.

The post To the Governor: Tennessee Bill to Exclude CBDC From the Definition of Money first appeared on Tenth Amendment Center.

3 Key Elements from the American Revolution for Successful Nullification Today

Michael Boldin — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 21:41:13 +0000

Responding to the Coercive Acts of 1774 – the “Intolerable Acts” – the old revolutionaries were organized, coordinated – and very strategic in their approach. We’d do well to learn what they considered essential elements for success.

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