Judging Freedom - Department of Justice sues Missouri over gun rights law

Episode Date: February 17, 2022

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Resolve to earn your degree in the new year in the Bay with WGU. WGU is an online accredited university that specializes in personalized learning. With courses available 24-7 and monthly start dates, you can earn your degree on your schedule. You may even be able to graduate sooner than you think by demonstrating mastery of the material you know. Make 2025 the year you focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu. Hello there, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, February 17th, 2022. It's about seven minutes after three on the East Coast in the United States. Before I get into what I want to talk about at this moment, a little bit of breaking

news. CNBC reported just about 15 seconds ago, just as we were coming on air, that a justice of the New York State Supreme Court has ordered former President Donald J. Trump and his two elder children to testify in a sworn deposition that's live Q&A in this lawsuit against him and against his Trump organization brought by the Attorney General of the State of New York. This will be big news in the next few hours. You're hearing it first, or you're hearing it second right here since CNBC had it first, and we picked it up for you. We've also picked up for you the fact that the Department of Justice is suing the State of Texas, or you might say big deal. Texas and the DOJ have been pissing at each other, excuse me, have been, you know, fighting each

other for a long time. This is profound and significant. A little bit of background. The legislature of Texas enacted and Governor Abbott signed into law the Texas Heartbeat Bill, which prohibits abortions after the detection of a heartbeat from the fetus. That's at about five or six weeks. That is in direct contravention to federal law, which is Roe versus Wade, which allows abortions up to week 23 or 24, depending upon the wording of the statute and depending upon the viability, the ability of the fetus to live outside the womb. When that case was challenged by the DOJ and it went to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court, without ruling on the merits, but during the time it will take to challenge the case, first in a federal trial court, then in a federal appellate court, and then to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court is permitting that Texas statute to stand. That is a form of nullification. That is the legislature of a state nullifying federal law and the Supreme Court permitted it. Now the last time this happened it involved a tax in South Carolina 20 years before the war between the states. It had been thought by legal scholars that the concept of nullification a state's highest court or a state's legislature and governor enacting a state statute. Nullifying a federal provision was null and void, but it's alive and well. Now fast forward to yesterday. Yesterday, the DOJ sued the state of Texas, excuse me, sued the state of Missouri, because the state of Missouri has

enacted a statute which basically says, forget about the federal gun laws. The only gun laws that apply in Missouri are the state gun laws. And we believe that the Constitution, which says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, means what it says. So the state of Missouri is following in the path of the state of Texas, not with respect to abortion, but with respect to gun rights. The federal Department of Justice has asked a federal judge to enjoin the enforcement of the Missouri law, which means that federal agents can be present in Missouri enforcing federal gun laws. If that federal judge turns down the DOJ request, then I pray to God that she or he does. My friends, you will see the second example of nullification in the United States of America in the modern and the post-World War between the states era. What's so great about nullification?

Ah, it allows the states to stop the federal government in its tracks when it's treading on an expressed right in the Constitution. In the case of abortion, it's the right to live. The Fifth Amendment says the government shall not take life, liberty, or property without due process of law, meaning a trial at which the government has to prove fault. In the case of Missouri, it's the Second Amendment. The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed by anybody, local, state, or federal. We'll see where this goes. Prediction? Nullification lives.

Judge Napolitano, judging freedom. Resolve to earn your degree in the new year in the bay with WGU With courses available online 24-7 and monthly start dates WGU offers maximum flexibility so you can focus on your future