general government"; and
WHEREAS, The Virginia Resolution was introduced in part as a
protest "against the palpable and alarming infractions of the
Constitution" where Federal officials were exercising:
a power no where delegated to the federal government,
and which by uniting legislative and judicial powers to
those of executive subverts the general principles of
free government; as well as the particular organization,
and positive provisions of the federal constitution; and
the other of which acts, exercises in like manner, a
power not delegated by the constitution, but on the
contrary, expressly and positively forbidden by one of
the amendments thereto; a power, which more than any
other, ought to produce universal alarm, because it is
leveled against that right of freely examining public
characters and measures, and of free communication among
the people thereon, which has ever been justly deeded,
the only effectual guardian of every right;
and
WHEREAS, The Federal Government, through executive orders,
national security measures, tax policies, regulations,
nonjudicial constitutional interpretations and other actions,
has extended Federal power well beyond the compact envisioned by
the states when ratifying and accepting the Federal
Constitution; therefore be it
RESOLVED, That the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby claim sovereignty for its citizens under the Ninth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: "the
enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people";
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