Tennessee governor does not veto Legislature's resolution opening door to states' rights lawsuit

05/20/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update: Michael Patrick Leahy has a much more understandable story on what the governor has done (or not done), and what it means. Click here for more.
The Tennessean titles this breaking news today a lot more optimistically (from our point of view) than the article actually indicates:

Haslam will allow Tennessee to become first to sue feds over refugee resettlement

Stephanie Teatro — Tennessee Immigrant Rights spokeswoman: “… the governor has helped secure Tennessee’s reputation as the most unwelcoming state in the country.”

Regular readers know that the Tennessee legislature overwhelmingly resolved to sue the federal government on 10th Amendment grounds and rather than sign the measure, the governor is going to let it go forward by not vetoing it either.
No matter! The reaction of the refugee industry activists tells me it must be good news for us!
Here is just a bit of the story, read it all:

Despite having concerns, Gov. Bill Haslam will allow Tennessee to become the first state in the nation to sue the federal government over refugee resettlement on the grounds of the 10th Amendment.

On Friday, Haslam announced his decision to allow the measure, which directs Attorney General Herbert Slatery to sue the federal government for noncompliance of the Refugee Act of 1980, to become law without his signature.

[….]

Explaining his decision, Haslam noted the provisions in the bill that allows the General Assembly to hire outside counsel if Slatery refuses to pursue the case.

“I trust the Attorney General to determine whether the state has a claim in this case or in any other, and I have constitutional concerns about one branch of government telling another what to do,” Haslam said. “I am returning SJR 467 without my signature and am requesting that the Attorney General clarify whether the legislative branch actually has the authority to hire outside counsel to represent the state.”

Slatery’s office has not indicated whether he would follow the legislature’s directive.

Haslam also questioned whether it was the “proper course” for the state to attempt to dismantle the refugee act. [Shouldn’t it be a Republican governor’s job to stand up for states’ rights?—besides, the state isn’t dismantling the act, it is only asking the courts for a ruling—ed]

Read on here to get the full flavor of the waffling going on!
Regarding Ms. Teatro’s comments about “unwelcoming” states, it would be so much fun to have a competition for the most unwelcoming state in the Nation! You could all send in your nominations!
They think that just by uttering the word “unwelcoming” you will be shaking in your boots and begging for forgiveness.
Come on Kansas, come on New Jersey!

Breaking news: Tennessee legislature votes to sue feds over refugee program

04/19/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is an understatement to say that this is a significant development! I have no time to give you all the details of the states’ rights lawsuit, so please read the story yourselves at Breitbart by clicking here. Michael Patrick Leahy begins his report on the great news:

NASHVILLE, Tennessee–On Tuesday, the Tennessee General Assembly declared it will sue the federal government over its refugee resettlement program on Tenth Amendment grounds. The State Senate passed a resolution authorizing that lawsuit in a 29 to 4 vote one day after it passed the Tennessee House by a 69 to 25 margin.

“Today we struck a blow for Liberty by finally adopting SJR467,” State Senator Mark Norris (R-Collierville), the co-sponsor of the resolution who shepherded it through the State Senate, tells Breitbart News.

Continue reading here.
See all of our coverage of the issue in Tennessee by clicking here.
I’ll be in DC tomorrow for meetings, so consequently I won’t be on top of all the latest news on the refugee front until I’m back on Thursday (and there is a lot of news)!

Tennessee legislature moves one step closer to states' right lawsuit on refugee program

04/14/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a big deal!

Just yesterday we reported that Syrian refugees resettled in Memphis, TN are dumpster diving because they don’t have jobs and apparently their resettlement agency (a contractor of the federal government) doesn’t raise enough private charitable money to help them!
The_Tenth_Amendment
Tennessee legislators have had enough of Washington making decisions for Tennessee taxpayers and are moving a resolution through the legislative process that in the end could result in a states’ rights lawsuit against the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program.
Here is the latest from Michael Patrick Leahy writing for Breitbart:

NASHVILLE, Tennessee–The Tennessee General Assembly is on track to sue the federal government over the refugee resettlement program on Tenth Amendment grounds after Senate Joint Resolution 467 cleared its last substantive hurdle in the Tennessee House Finance Committee.

The resolution sailed through the committee on a voice vote, and is now headed to the Calendar and Rules Committee, which will schedule a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives some time during the next seven days. The resolution is expected to pass in a landslide, as 74 of the House’s 99 members have already signed on as sponsors.

In February, the resolution easily passed the State Senate by a 27 to 5 margin.

“As SJR 467 is moving forward, other states will read our actions. I am pleased that seventy-four of my colleagues believe wholeheartedly that Tennessee is responsible for asserting our state’s sovereignty rights under the Tenth Amendment,” State Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver (R-Lancaster), the sponsor of the resolution in the House, tells Breitbart News.

Terri_Lynn_Weaver_Tennesse_House_Seat_desk — Rep Weaver is the chief sponsor of the resolution and was joined by 74 of her fellow legislators.

“We have seen unprecedented federal overreach during the Obama administration. We need clarity and definition concerning the relationship between the federal government and our state when it comes to appropriations to pay for the federal Refugee Resettlement Program,” Weaver adds.

It is now a virtual certainty that the Tennessee General Assembly will file the lawsuit in federal court, as the Thomas More Law Center, a well-respected conservative public interest law firm, has said it will represent the state of Tennessee at no cost, even if Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery chooses not to litigate the case.

Continue reading here.

You can do this too!

Readers, this is not a lawsuit only for Tennessee. If you live in one of these so-called ‘Wilson-Fish’ states, your state too could be a plaintiff (because of the way the program has been structured in these states)…..

…..if your governor had guts!

Wilson Fish states: Alaska, Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, South Dakota, North Dakota, Tennessee and Vermont.

Go here for our complete archive on the Wilson-Fish program.

Tenth Amendment poster above right can be ordered by going here: http://www.zazzle.com/tenth_amendment_poster-228447030250525985

Tennessee update: REPUBLICAN Governor may be sabotaging Legislature on refugee lawsuit resolution

02/24/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday we told you the big news that the Tennessee Senate, by an overwhelming margin, voted to ask the AG to file a Tenth Amendment lawsuit against the feds on the refugee resettlement program now in operation in the state (it is run by Catholic Charities and the feds with no state role).
It didn’t take the REPUBLICAN Governor long (apparently ready to endorse donor-class favorite Open Borders Marco) to martial his supporters to attempt to derail the resolution in the House.

Here is the latest from Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart.

“On the eve of his expected endorsement of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for president, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam is trying to surreptitiously bury a migrant-stopping resolution that was passed overwhelmingly by the State Senate on Monday.

The measure, which sailed through the full State Senate Monday on a 27 to 5 vote, is now pending in the House of ‎Representatives, where it is expected to pass easily.

But because of parliamentary tricks, it first faces a long, back-room journey through multiple committees before it can be approved by the House.

“When I saw [Speaker of the Tennessee House] Beth Harwell put it [Senate Joint Resolution 467] in two subcommittees and two full committees I knew that was afoot,” one State Representative tells Breitbart News.

Governor Haslam cannot veto the resolution, but he is apparently trying to bury the resolution, which requests the Tennessee Attorney General to initiate a lawsuit against the federal government’s operation of the refugee resettlement program in Tennessee on Tenth Amendment grounds.”

Continue reading! There is so much more juicy information.
About the photo at right:
Be sure to see my post on the Koch brothers and Americans for Prosperity here. And, again here this morning.
In the heyday of the Tea Party movement the Koch brothers, obviously wishing to corral the Tea Party energy, created Americans for Prosperity. It all sounded good, AFP supported lower taxes and opposed Obamacare (which helped the Kochs’ bottomline), but there was one big problem with the group as we all learned as time went on—they were silent on one of the major motivating issues of the Tea Party, namely immigration. Charles and David Koch are open borders advocates.
The group, Americans for Prosperity, served as a shield (a sort of Tea Party stamp of approval) for Republicans apparently including Harwell and I expect Gov. Haslam as well. However, again, AFP (which has pretty much fizzled) never lifted a finger against amnesty, the Gang of Eight bill, and certainly never to curtail the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program.
Election 2016 is shaping up as a battle on the Republican side between those who want to limit immigration on behalf of American workers and those who don’t want to change the cultural make-up of their towns and cities; and those, like the Kochs, like Rubio and apparently like Governor Haslam who are in the pockets of the Chambers of Commerce and big business interests wanting the flow of cheap immigrant labor to continue. Make no mistake, this is not about humanitarianism!
For new readers: we have an extensive archive on Tennessee, click here for many posts over eight years. Tennessee is an important ‘pocket of resistance!’ How do we know? The feds told us so here in 2013.
We have a special category just on Nashville alone, here.
Follow me on twitter, I’m excited to be reaching the 2,000 follower mark. That is not a lot compared to others, but for me, a newbie, it is pretty exciting!

Tennessee's giant step forward in defending states' rights in refugee resettlement issue

02/23/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday, Michael Patrick Leahy of Breitbart reported the incredible news that the Tennessee Senate passed a resolution that advances the Tenth Amendment concerns of many as it relates to the federal government (and its non-profit contractors) dropping off refugees in states where the state taxpayer then must pony-up and pay for some of their welfare, education and healthcare (without any say through an elected body). Our earlier post on the Tennessee legislature is here.

mark-tv-interview — Majority Leader Sen. Mark Norris (R-Collierville): “a declaration of our rights as a sovereign state…”

And, interestingly, in my previous post I mentioned an article in The Nation in which the author says that those states that have filed lawsuits against the federal program (Texas and Alabama for example) haven’t a legal leg to stand on. However, they never mentioned the possible bombshell that could be coming from Tennessee.
Here is the news:

The Tennessee State Senate overwhelmingly passed a resolution by a 27 to 5 margin requiring a state lawsuit against the federal government program that is dumping refugees into the Volunteer State.

Senate Joint Resolution 467 now goes to the Tennessee House of Representatives, where sources tell Breitbart News it is expected to pass some time in the next three weeks.

Passage of the resolution by the State Senate means that it is certain a lawsuit will be filed against the federal government’s Refugee Resettlement Program on Tenth Amendment grounds, something that no other state has yet done.

Both Texas and Alabama have filed federal lawsuits claiming that the federal government has failed to comply with the “consultation clause” of the Refugee Act of 1980. That argument, however, is considered to be on very thin legal grounds because the standard required to establish “consultation” is very low.

The State Senate is expected to wait on filing the lawsuit until it is joined by the House of Representatives, so the entire Tennessee General Assembly will be the plaintiff.

“This Resolution strikes a blow for liberty,” Majority Leader Sen. Mark Norris (R-Collierville), the co-sponsor of the bill who carefully guided it through the upper chamber tells Breitbart News in an exclusive statement.

Norris calls the resolution, “a declaration of our rights as a sovereign state which upholds the principles by which we foster freedom.”

Continue reading! This is very important!
Leahy tells us that the lawsuit would apply first to the so-called Wilson Fish states*** and other 11 states could join Tennessee or file their own lawsuit. In some states it requires the governor to be the plaintiff, but in Tennessee (others?) the legislature can do it.
And, for those of you in 36 other states here is what a serious state government (Texas! for example) could do:

Other states who are seeking a way to stop the unhindered flow of refugees will see in the Tennessee State senate’s action a legal path to successfully resist the continued operation of the U.S. Refugee Resettlement program in their states.

The other 11 “Wilson-Fish alternative program” states can join the Tennessee lawsuit, or they can file their own Tenth amendment challenges to the U.S. Refugee Resettlement program.

The remaining states that are currently participating in the program can withdraw from it, thereby becoming “Wilson-Fish alternative program” states, and also file Tenth amendment challenges to the U.S. Refugee Resettlement program.

***Wilson Fish states: Alaska, Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, South Dakota, North Dakota, Tennessee and Vermont.

Looking for the ‘silver bullet?’

I often tell people there is no one “silver bullet” to end the Refugee Admissions Program as constructed by the original Kennedy/Biden Refugee Act of 1980, but the Constitutional States’ Rights issue comes mighty close.
However! Do not expect your Republican governors and Republican legislatures to see the light shining in Tennessee and just jump on the bandwagon.
Most will be too chicken and some will see the refugee program as the source of cheap labor for their campaign donors, so it’s up to you to keep the pressure on through various means—resolutions, protests, letters to the editor, community meetings, agitation and pressure on elected officials at all levels of government, and Election 2016 campaigning are all examples of what you can do (and are doing!).
All of that political activity is vitally important. You can make it possible for elected officials to take action by creating the political climate they need.
In short, it is your job to agitate and create controversy just as the No Borders Left does all the time!