DATE OF LAST UPDATE:  May 13, 2015

Welcome to the Center for Individual Freedom's State Sovereignty Project, a comprehensive effort devoted to persuading all 50 states to aggressively exercise their authority to serve as a check on the ever-growing and often extra-constitutional power of the federal government.

CFIF’s State Sovereignty Project employs a grassroots-driven approach to encourage governmental authorities closest to the people – governors, state and local legislatures, state attorneys general and other state constitutional officers – to reclaim and exercise the structural powers granted to them by the U.S. Constitution as a bulwark against federal encroachments on state sovereignty and erosion of the individual liberties of the people they serve.  Specifically, CFIF employs and enhances its numerous forms of paid advertising, earned media, social media and editorial materials, among other methods, as part of an ongoing broad education effort to promote localized grassroots activism.
 

Multi-Media:

Video: The Forgotten Amendment
October 24, 2014
In this Freedom Minute video, CFIF's Renee Giachino questions what limits exist on the federal government and the importance of state and local sovereignty as envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

Podcast: The EPA’s Assault on State Sovereignty
July 12, 2013
In an interview with CFIF, William Yeatman, Assistant Director at the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, discusses the Obama Administration’s climate agenda, its all-out war on coal, the Keystone Pipeline project and the EPA’s assault on state sovereignty.

Podcast: Virginia AG Cuccinelli Discusses “The New Fight for American Liberty”
March 4, 2013
In an interview with CFIF, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli discusses the role of the states to protect individual liberty and push back against an expansive federal government, and his new book, "The Last Line of Defense: The New Fight for American Liberty."

CFIF Releases New Ad in West Virginia Urging AG McGraw to Fight Back Against Washington’s War on Coal
October 25, 2012
As part of its ongoing State Sovereignty Project, CFIF's TV ad in West Virginia urges Attorney General Darrell McGraw to stand up for West Virginians against Washington’s War on Coal.

CFIF Launches Public Education Effort in West Virginia
October 17, 2012
The Center for Individual Freedom (“CFIF”) launched a public education effort in West Virginia, which included a new television ad urging West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw to use his authority to stand up to Washington, D.C.’s power grabs that are hurting West Virginia families and intrude on the state’s sovereignty.

Video: The War on Federalism
September 14, 2012
In this Freedom Minute web video, CFIF’s Renee Giachino discusses the erosion of states’ rights, highlighting recent instances of Executive Branch attempts to expand federal power at the expense of state sovereignty.

Video: Heroes of Federalism
August 17, 2012
As part of CFIF’s ongoing State Sovereignty Project, CFIF's Renee Giachino shines a spotlight on Heroes of Federalism in this Freedom Minute web video.

Podcast: Florida Secretary of State Defends Effort to Crack Down on Voter Fraud
August 3, 2012
In an interview with CFIF, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner defends his state’s efforts against the federal government to purge the rolls of ineligible voters and discusses the recent decision by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to grant the state access to the SAVE database.

Podcast: The Administration’s Education Power Grab
April 12, 2012
In an interview with CFIF, Lance Izumi, senior fellow and director of education studies at the Pacific Research Institute, discusses how the Obama Administration is leading a massive federal power grab that is disempowering local communities and parents by centralizing education policy in Washington.

Podcast: Reining In Regulatory Power Grabs
May 25, 2012
In an interview with CFIF, Shannon Goessling, Executive Director for Southeastern Legal Foundation, discusses the multi-party legal challenges against the greenhouse gas/climate change regulations rushed into force by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the ongoing regulatory power grabs of the Obama Administration. 

Articles & Blog Posts:

Florida Sues to Block "Gun to the Head" ObamaCare Coercion
May 13, 2015
When it comes to expanding Medicaid under ObamaCare, the Obama administration has a clear goal: Coerce holdout states into submission by threatening to eliminate funding for other health-related programs. Florida is fighting back.

Online Gaming Bill: Congressional Debate Should Include Pro-Liberty, Pro-Federalism Voices
March 6, 2015
We at CFIF believe that the issue of online gaming should remain something addressed at the state level, as opposed to a new one-size-fits all nationwide ban over all 50 states.  We therefore oppose proposed federal legislation deceptively named the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA). Unfortunately, some in Congress don’t even appear interested in allowing a balanced debate of the pending legislation.

Rep. Chaffetz Reintroduces Proposed Nationwide Internet Gaming Ban That Died a Rightful Death Just Two Months Ago 
February 5, 2015
Two short months ago, we sounded the alarm regarding proposed Congressional legislation that would’ve banned online gaming in all 50 states, improperly federalizing what is rightfully an individual state law concern. The proposed bill rightfully died a quick death.  Unfortunately, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R – Utah) apparently considers the week of Groundhog Day an appropriate time to reattempt the blanket nationwide ban.

Proposed Federal Legislation Banning Online Gaming in All 50 States Is a Bad Idea 
December 5, 2014
Here at the Center for Individual Freedom, we broadly favor the federalist and Tenth Amendment concept of states’ rights and individual liberty, as our name suggests. Both principles are implicated in an emerging debate at the Congressional level.  Namely, proposed new legislation that would prohibit all 50 states and their citizens from allowing online poker and other gaming as they see fit.

CFIF Joins Broad Coalition Urging States to Fight Back Against EPA's Coercive Clean Power Plan
December 4, 2014
In a letter sent to state elected officials, the Center for Individual Freedom joined with a broad coalition of free-market and conservative organizations to urge states to fight back against the Environmental Protection Agency's coercive efforts aimed at forcing them to adopt destructive anti-energy policies under the guise of the so-called Clean Power Plan.

Texas Launches 17-State Lawsuit Against Obama’s Immigration Amnesty 
December 3, 2014
As Republicans in Congress debate how best to respond to President Barack Obama’s unilateral and unconstitutional immigration amnesty, state governments are wondering how they will pay for this massive new unfunded mandate.

How Much Will Obama’s Immigration Amnesty Cost Your State?
December 3, 2014
As Republicans in Congress debate how best to respond to President Barack Obama’s unilateral and unconstitutional immigration amnesty, state governments are wondering how they will pay for this massive new unfunded mandate.

Federalism on the Firing Line
July 31, 2014
"With so much attention on the turf war between Congress and the President, it’s easy to overlook another, equally disturbing separation-of-powers crisis – the swift erosion of federalism. ... In particular, the practice of conditioning receipt of federal money on capitulation to federal regulations is turning states into mere enforcement officers for the federal government."

Time to REIN-in State & Local Govt. Too
January 21, 2014
"Steven Hayward is out with a blistering piece on the need to remember that state and local governments can be just as mind-numbingly bureaucratic as the feds. ... As proof he cites several stories of local cops shutting down kids’ lemonade stands, and county air pollution regulators that make more than the top officials at the federal EPA."

Red State Revolution
February 21, 2013
"Liberals, who spent the Bush years exalting themselves as the defenders of science and sweet reason, have a bit of a problem on their hands. These paragons of logic, who will supposedly go wherever the evidence takes them, are currently having their most fundamental beliefs in the proper role of government disproved in a nationwide experiment. The name of this experiment: federalism."

AGs: States’ Sovereignty Advances Liberty
September 20, 2012
"The Center for Individual Freedom’s “State Sovereignty Project” is being planted in soil already made fertile by resolute actions of conservative state attorneys general. The antiquated term of 'states' rights' doesn’t do justice to their efforts, because they really are defending the states’ ability to look out for their citizens’ individual rights, prerogatives and well-being."

In Indiana, an Education Success Story
August 23, 2012
"Here at the Center for Individual Freedom, we recently launched a State Sovereignty Project that aims to encourage states to resist Washington’s encroachment on their constitutionally-protected powers. While resisting federal overreach is, in and of itself, a worthy pursuit, it becomes even more valuable when the states then use that freedom to enact major public policy innovations."

CFIF Launches Enhanced State Sovereignty Project
August 7, 2012
CFIF's State Sovereignty Project "builds on CFIF’s existing work over the last several years in this area, focuses a grassroots-driven approach to encourage governmental authorities closest to the people – governors, state and local legislatures, state attorneys general and other state constitutional officers – to reclaim and exercise the structural powers granted to them by the U.S. Constitution as a bulwark against federal encroachments on state sovereignty and erosion of the individual liberties of the people they serve."

Supreme Court: Diminished Standing
August 2, 2012
"Lost in the shuffle, after the decision in NFIB v. Sebelius, was the Supreme Court’s subsequent failure to protect state sovereignty from the ravages of a renegade court. While the authority of individual states did not suffer broad or permanent damage, the principle of federalism did take another unfortunate blow."

Conservative Governors Are Right to Resist Medicaid Expansion
July 12, 2012
"In effect, ObamaCare changed the rules of the Medicaid game by coercing the states to spend even more on the program.  And since federal matching funds average more than 10 percent of every state’s budget, the Court said the penalty for not expanding Medicaid was too high a price to pay under the Constitution and struck it down. But even with the Medicaid penalty gone, conservative governors are right to be wary of participating in ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion." 

Republican Governors Leading Nationwide Charge on Education Reform
July 12, 2012
"[T]he Republican candidates have no beef with education itself – just with federal intrusion into a field that ought to be decentralized as much as possible. As Mitt Romney – hardly the most fire-breathing conservative in the field – noted in a September debate, 'Education has to be held at the local and state level, not at the federal level. We need to get the federal government out of education.' Thankfully, the states aren’t marking time until Washington recedes."

The Results Are In: Conservative States Prosper, While Liberal States Decline
April 26, 2012
"Chalk up another victory for the Founding Fathers. In a nation now continental in scope and 50 states strong in composition, federalism is more useful than ever. ... Unfortunately, the results from the 50 state laboratories are not stacked up against each other nearly often enough. ... Thankfully, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has remedied that deficiency with its study 'Rich States, Poor States,' the fifth annual edition of which was released earlier this month."

ObamaCare Exchanges Consumer Choice and State Sovereignty for Nationalized Healthcare
March 15, 2012
"In its latest unveiling of ObamaCare mandates, the Department of Health and Human Services promises that the creation of government-run health insurance exchanges will give states more flexibility and consumers more choices.  But an examination of the rhetoric versus the reality reveals that these claims are just a smokescreen while HHS effectively nationalizes the entire health insurance market."

Obama Team Hijacks Schools’ Core Standards
February 16, 2012
"The constitutional, statutory and philosophical abuses by the Obama administration continue piling up. Last week, two of the top former lawyers for the federal Department of Education released a peer-reviewed report showing the administration violating or evading three separate federal laws by pressuring states to adopt a national core curriculum. Those laws exist for good reason: Control of educational content by the national government risks creating a national system of indoctrination, without local recourse to diversity of thought."

Arizona Sues Feds Over Voting Rights Act
August 26, 2011
"With its tough anti-illegal immigration law headed to the Supreme Court, the State of Arizona is opening up another legal front in its 10th Amendment tussle with Eric Holder’s Justice Department."

Texas Enters Fight to Repeal ObamaCare
January 26, 2011
"In the opening days of the 2011 legislative session, Texas State Representative Bryan Hughes (R-Mineola) is serving notice that ObamaCare and its mandates most definitely mess with Texas."

Will ObamaCare Force States to Drop Medicaid?
November 12, 2010
"The only way the federal government can dictate spending and policy decisions to the states is if the states agree to the terms.  Those terms are buried in the fine print of federal programs that condition receipt of federal money on compliance with federal policies.  Like dramatically increasing Medicaid rolls."

ObamaCare’s Individual Mandate a “Commandeering of the People”?
July 24, 2010
"[C]onstitutional law professor Randy Barnett makes an intriguing connection between the anti-government anger of millions of Americans and a currently accepted legal theory that may overturn ObamaCare’s individual mandate."

Florida Tries “Federalism” at the County Level
June 15, 2010
"Political science purists would quibble with using the term federalism to describe a county government’s ability to declare itself able to act against the wishes of federal and state government...but who cares? Certainly not the take-the-bull-by-horns types running Florida’s Okaloosa County."

Texas Governor Rick Perry Says No to Obama Education Department’s “Race to the Top” Initiative
January 27, 2010
"When it comes to the creeping socialism stretching from President Barack Obama’s Washington, D.C., Texas Governor Rick Perry has a three word response, 'No, thank you.'  On January 13, Perry announced that Texas would not participate in the U.S. Department of Education’s 'Race to the Top' competition."

Federalism Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
April 22, 2009
"The recent release of an Intelligence Assessment Report by the Department of Homeland Security deservedly drew the ire of conservatives throughout the nation for warning of the dangers posed by such menacing groups as military veterans returning stateside, pro-life activists, and border security advocates.  But another, less remarked upon, item was perhaps even more distressing.  According to the DHS, you may be a threat to national security if you believe in the Constitution."