When we last saw Senator Dave Brown (R-Becker), he'd just introduced his introduced SF325 , a "United Nations Agenda 21 private property rights restrictions implementation prohibition" bill. It bans any sustainable development anywhere, anyhow, in the state if anyone, anyhow can trace the language back to Agenda 21.
Since he's got the Agenda 21 Alarmist malarkey, he can move on to go old fashioned Tentherism by introducing SF514, a cookie-cutter resolution provided by the Tenth Amendment Center, which sounds pretty prestigious.
It is: it's run out of Michael Boldin's home in California, where he also operates Webstores, LLC. Mother Jones' Stephanie Mencimer reported in If at First You Don't Secede:
In 2007, with some money from a customer service job (he prefers not to say where he works), Boldin launched the Tenth Amendment Center's website. Though the Constitution provided many tools for battling the Bush administration's overreach—the Eighth Amendment bans torture, for instance—Boldin saw the Tenth as the ultimate check on federal power, all in a single line: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people." In that terse passage, Boldin saw the legal and philosophical basis for challenging a raft of executive excesses.
The Tenth has also caught on with Tea Partiers and others seeking a one-size-fits-all way to snub federal authority. . . .
At MinnPost in 2010, Eric Black looked at the movement in Taking Tentherism seriously in Minnesota and Debate over Tentherism: Some history to consider, as well as later occasional posts, that still serve as good introductions to the broader movement.
Cottage Grove veteran Leon Moe and the Tenth Amendment Center
In Minnesota, disabled Vietnam vet Leon Moe is the Ten Amendment Center state group coordinator. At the height of the Tea Party and Tentherism, Moe was frequently in the news. In 2009, Scott Wente of the South Washington County Bulletin reported in Retiree throws himself into push for state sovereignty:
Leon Moe said he’s always been a patriot.
The Cottage Grove resident’s definition of what that means, though, has changed a lot.
Forty years ago, when he was fighting with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, it meant following the U.S. government’s orders.
Now, it means lobbying legislators at the state Capitol to assert Minnesota’s sovereignty, a move that would allow the state to claim exclusion from unfunded federal mandates on 10th Amendment grounds. . . .
Moe was first drawn to politics by Ron Paul's ideas, Wente writes, but found Ron Paul Meet-ups too Republican. But like baby bear's porridge, the Constitution Party was just right--and he found a kindred soul in former House Minority leader Marty Seifert:
So when Paul endorsed the Constitution Party’s presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin, Moe got in touch with the leaders of the Constitution Party of Minnesota. He started attending meetings last December, and in February, he and three other Constitution Party activists met in the State Office Building to seek out a legislator that would author a bill declaring Minnesota a sovereign state. . . .
The group of four was successful in getting Minnesota House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, to author the legislation. A week later, House File 997 was ready to move through the committee process.
By March 19, 2010, Moe was connected with the Tenth Amendment Center. In March 2010, Moe posted on the Minnesota pages on TAC's webpage, Minnesota Sovereignty Legislation HF 997 & HF 998:
We have two slightly different versions of Minnesota Sovereignty Legislation. HF 997 authored by Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Rep Marty Seifert. HF 998 authored by Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Rep Tom Emmer. Both pieces of this legislation were introduced to the Minnesota House on the same day, February 19th, 2009. Perhaps the two authors did not want to be outdone by the other.
These 2 pieces of legislation were assigned to the State and Local Government Operations Reform Technology and Elections Committee. This Committee is chaired by DFL Rep Gene Pelowski of Winona who has so far refused to bring either of these pieces of legislation to a Committee hearing.
What I find interesting is that GOP gubernatorial candidate Rep Tom Emmer is listed as GOP Lead on this Committee. In addition his gubernatorial campaign manager Rep Mark Buesgens is also listed as being on this committee.
It has been over a year and I have not heard any barking or received any documentation by Rep Emmer or Rep Buesgens urging Chairman Pelowski of their Committee to bring this Tenth Amendment legislation to a Committee hearing. . . .
Criticism of the party didn't sit well with the Republican Party in Crow Wing County in September 2010, Brainerd Dispatch assistant editor Mike O'Rouke reported in Discord with GOP outlined at tea party rally here:
Tea party organizer George Burton, addressing a smaller than usual tea party crowd Tuesday, criticized Crow Wing County Republicans, claiming that they discouraged participation and urged scheduled speakers to cancel their appearances at Tuesday's rally.
. . ."Things got pretty ugly," he told the crowd, stating that a certain party (which he named later in an interview) had tried to convince Leon Moe, state coordinator of the Minnesota Tenth Amendment Center, to cancel his speech.
But Moe did indeed speak and was billed as the head of the TAC:
Moe, a disabled Vietnam veteran who heads the Tenth Amendment Center, said this nation's founders feared a government with too much power. He discussed the Tenth Amendment as the cornerstone of the Constitution."
The Tenth Amendment states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."
He said neither health care nor education were listed as powers of the federal government and discussed how state Legislatures could declare such laws null and void.
"We just don't want to be obeying stupid, unconstitutional laws," Moe said.
Moe showed up at a famous protest in Governor Mark Dayton's reception room in January 2011, objecting to a health care order that the Democratic governor was signing as one of his first acts of office. In Dayton gives mic to Cottage Grove protester, South Washington County Bulletin reporter Scott Wente reported:
Cottage Grove resident Leon Moe is critical of federal health care expansion and on Wednesday was given a big platform to express that view.
Gov. Mark Dayton yielded his microphone to Moe and other protesters at a highly unusual ceremony during which the governor signed off on an expansion of the federal Medicaid program in Minnesota. . . .
Moe, who went to the Capitol to protest the action, said he was asked to speak. He believes the Medicaid action is unconstitutional.
“If you can show me anywhere in the Constitution where it says that Congress has the authority to legislate health care, let me know,” Moe said to applause as he stood at Dayton’s lectern and in the light of TV cameras. . . .
Dayton's plan to sign the executive order was publicized days in advance, drawing protesters to the ceremony. Events in the ornate reception room of the governor's state Capitol office traditionally only are open to journalists, staff, supporters and lawmakers.
“This is a public room,” Dayton said. “This belongs to the people of Minnesota.”
Some of the protesters were Tea Party members, but Moe says he is not part of that movement and instead considers himself a libertarian. He occasionally contributes letters to the editor of the South Washington County Bulletin.
In his latest letter, dated February 15, Schoen's gun stance reason enough to oust him in next election, Moe believes that freshman Representive Dan Schoen has turned his back on the Constitution.
The Tenth Amendment Center and SF 514: side by side
Did Moe deliver the language to Senator Brown, who was elected in 2010? Hard to tell, although it's clear from the 2009 newpaper report that he had a hand in Seifert's bill. Curious that in 2009,Tentherism wasn't some backbench malarkey, but an issue championed by Minority Leader Seifert, thought now to be more "mainstream" than Emmer, who also sponsored a Tenther but apparently didn't work on it hard even for the TAC state coordinator.
Whatever the case, Brown's resolution is a copycat of the TAC language. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the model resolution and SF 514:
Tenth Amendment Center Resolution and SF 514 side by side
Photo: Senator Dave Brown, R-Becker. The 2013 bill is also co-authored by Dave Osmek (R-Mound) (above); Leon Moe at the microphone in the Governor's Reception Room (below). Photo by Don Davis via the South Washington County Bulletin.
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