There is good news this July 4th. The stirrings across America by citizens who want to reclaim constitutional government have been heard in state capitals nationwide – and none too soon. Because Washington, DC has fallen prey to the temptations of tyranny, the road to restoring the United States Constitution will come from the state and local levels of government. As Ronald Reagan pointed out, it was not the federal government that created the states; rather, the states created the federal government. History will someday report that the first halting steps to restore the American republic were taken in 2009.

If you still think the restoration will begin in Washington, DC, consider the outrageous support of President Obama for a would-be leftist dictator in Central America. The US government is demanding the recently ousted president of Honduras be returned to power. Mr. Obama denounced his ouster as an illegal coup d'etat. Meanwhile, his purported friend Hugo Chavez, the dictator of Venezuela, is threatening to invade Honduras without a murmur of dissent from Mr. Obama.

But the decision of the Honduran military to remove their president was no coup. It was supported by that nation's congress and Supreme Court and a new civilian president took office in accordance with the constitutional rules of succession. The president was ousted for illegally trying to replace the constitution with a new one without presidential term limits. Mr. Obama's support for this act of Caesarism wins him a black star for Contempt of Constitution. Is there anyone in the world who can now think Mr. Obama believes in a limited government of checks and balances?

Another politician who wins a black star for not comprehending the rules of limited government is South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. His refusal to resign while being bogged down by personal scandal shows either lack of understanding or lack of regard for what the late historian R.J. Rushdoony called Sphere Law. This means that, as Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, that government exists to protect the rights of mankind that are God-given. As James Madison added, since government is never run by angels, it must be controlled. So the United States divides government power between the legislative, executive, and judicial spheres, the federal and state spheres, the state and local spheres, and even public and private spheres. Mankind is not governed only by the state, but also by spheres of family, commerce, individual conscience, and religion.

By clinging desperately to public office, Governor Sanford also merits a black star. His first priority must be to mend his marriage and save his family. He cannot do so while fighting the usual political battles. No doubt he is frustrated by hearing calls for his immediate resignation while watching Progressive politicians like Edward Kennedy, Barney Frank, and the Clintons, who not only retain power years after being caught in scandals worse than his, but are lionized by the American political left. Nevertheless, supporters of constitutional government, like Mr. Sanford, must stand by their principles and continue to point to the lack of standards from progressive leftists who worship power above everything else.

Long before Progressives started gloating over Mr. Sanford's downfall, they served notice that they hold constitutional government in contempt. The latest example of that contempt comes from Phil Bredesen, the current governor of Tennessee.

Mr. Bredesen has decided to allow the new Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act to become law without his signature. In doing so, however, he denounced the new law as unconstitutional and predicted the federal courts will make mincemeat of it. That was his first mistake. Since he is under oath to uphold the US Constitution, he is obligated to veto any bill he considers unconstitutional.

This new law declares that "The Tennessee Constitution clearly secures to Tennessee citizens, and prohibits government interference with, the right of individual Tennessee citizens to keep and bear arms." It specifically declares that Congress has no power under the interstate commerce clause of the US Constitution to interfere with intrastate gun transactions inside Tennessee. The new law adds Tennessee to a long list of states that have proposed or enacted bills reasserting the powers of the states under the Ninth and Tenth amendments in the US Bill of Rights. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison would be proud.

Governor Bredesen wins a constitutional black star because, to put it simply, he just doesn't get it. The federal courts have no more power to defy the Tenth Amendment than do Congress and the president. Jefferson pointed out that the Tenth Amendment is the linchpin of the US Constitution and the federal system it empowers. Washington politicians and bureaucrats have no power beyond the written limits of the US Constitution. Beyond those limits, the powers of the states are supreme. If necessary, the states can interpose their constitutional views over those of federal officeholders, including US judges and justices, and nullify unconstitutional laws or orders from the US government.

The Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act has earned that state's lawmakers two constitutional gold stars. But this is only the start of what is needed to restore the US Constitution. The Scorecard now humbly submits what should become, and someday will become, the model for American state governments in the 21st Century.

The model American state government will begin by amending its own constitution to reassert what Virginia, New York, and Rhode Island declared when they ratified the US Constitution. These three states reserved the right to reclaim any powers delegated to the federal government through the US Constitution if those powers are ever used to violate the rights of citizens. Such state constitutional amendments will also reassert state and local powers under the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the US Constitution. As Jefferson and Madison pointed out in 1798, through the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions against the Alien and Sedition Acts, this means any state can nullify any unconstitutional federal law or decree.

To help preserve these necessary limitations on federal powers, the model state government will also assert in its state constitution the authority of its legislature to form modern committees of correspondence, or other associations, with other states in the Union to discuss ways they can cooperate against arbitrary federal actions. This will mirror what the original 13 states did to resist British tyranny before the American Revolution.

The model state government will also create new councils or committees to defend specific constitutional rights, especially property rights and free speech. Both of these rights have been violated in recent decades by federal actions, including campaign finance controls and hate crime laws. It will not allow federal officials to unreasonably interfere with the rights of citizens to be free stewards of their own property.

Such committees and councils will be authorized to recommend to the legislature whether federal laws should be voided. It may also ask state courts and state executives to review questionable interpretations of the US Constitution by federal authorities. This will expedite resistance to federal tyranny. These organizations will also hold local town hall meetings for citizen education and input about the US Constitution.

The model state government will also amend its constitution to require a restoration of constitutional limits on the federal power to wage war. The Founding Fathers insisted that excessive or improper use of the warmaking power is always a threat to freedom. Reformed state constitutions will restore state militias, in place of National Guard units. State militias played a crucial role in winning the American Revolution. State lawmakers will insist the militia not be called into federal service unless Congress has declared war or issued letters of marque and reprisal.

The model state government will also restrain the excesses of partisan politics, recalling President George Washington's warning in his Farewell Address that political parties often produce "a fire that tends to consume, rather than warm" and that can destroy a republic. It is time to face the facts: both the Democratic and Republican parties have unconstitutionally expanded federal powers in their zealous pursuit of federal power and patronage.

Washington, DC is now so saturated with arrogance that the current US president, who barely won a majority of the popular vote, routinely dismisses objections to his policies by saying "I won" the election. But the USA is not run by partisan presidential plebiscites and dictates, as Hitler ran Nazi Germany, but through a democratic republic of checks and balances.

The model state government will subdue excessive partisanship by following the example of Nebraska. Seventy-five years ago this year, Nebraskans approved the initiative of Senator George Norris, a Progressive before that term was hijacked by Cultural Marxists – to reform the state legislature with nonpartisan elections. The future model state government will require in its own constitution that congressional and presidential candidates be elected via nonpartisan ballots. Nonpartisan elections to the Nebraska unicameral legislature have softened partisan differences. When this rule is applied to Congress, it will weaken party machines and the patronage demands that have so bloated federal bureaucracies.

The future model state government also will restore the indirect method of electing American presidents with nonpartisan balloting. Instead, citizens will be invited to election year caucuses to debate and vote on policies the next president should address. Presidential electors will not be pledged to vote for a specific candidate. Instead, they will promise to only vote for presidential candidates who agree to address the people's issues.

The model state government should also insist that its members of Congress support repeal of the 16th and 17th Amendments to the US Constitution. The federal income tax, created by the 16th Amendment, has become repressive. This year's corrupt senatorial election in Minnesota and senatorial appointment in Illinois are sufficient proof that the 17th Amendment has backfired. Direct election of US senators has corrupted and undermined American federalism.

Last, but not least, the model state government will prohibit out of state funding for all elections; federal, state, and local. All federal election laws on campaign finance will also be nullified. This limitation on campaign financing will be effective, unlike the unconstitutional McCain-Feingold Law. It will provide the added bonus of restoring the role of state and local governments in the American federal system.

Once the states, or at least, a significant number of them, have enacted such reforms, the US Constitution will be restored. Americans will once again live under the rule of law – Sphere Law – and the proper checks and balances will return. These reforms may seem drastic, but once in place, they will soon feel natural. And, from above, the Founders of the American Republic will nod approval.

Let the restoration begin!

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