![\"Evan\"](\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Evan-Barrett.jpg\")
<\/a>Evan Barrett<\/p><\/div>\n
On the 4th of July especially, the flag reminds us of the Declaration of Independence which states the self-evident truth \u201cThat all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,\u201d and that governments derive their \u201cpowers from the consent of the governed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The flag helps us to also reflect on the U.S. Constitution, which, as the supreme law of our land, is an even more important American governmental document. British Prime Minister William Gladstone reflected the thinking of the world when he said that \u201cthe American Constitution is \u2026 the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.\u201d<\/p>\n
But these days, it seems, the Constitution gets more reverence than respect. There are many in our country and state who rhetorically wrap themselves in the Constitution while at the same time they seek to ignore it, change it, dismantle it. To me they are “Counterfeit Constitutionalists.”<\/p>\n
Casual confusion about the Constitution is understandable. Former Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black saw it clearly when he said: \u201cThe layman’s Constitutional view is that what he likes is Constitutional and that which he doesn’t like is un-Constitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n
That perspective might be relatively harmless, but the Counterfeit Constitutionalists have taken it to a much higher and more dangerous level, organizing to aggressively pursue, in the name of the Constitution, extraordinarily harmful things like nullification and a war on women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n
In its \u201csupremacy\u201d clause, our Constitution establishes the supremacy of the federal government in certain areas. However, the Counterfeit Constitutionalists seek to flout the Constitution and assert state government control over the federal government in some of those specific areas.<\/p>\n
Similar efforts at \u201cnullification\u201d helped plunge America into the Civil War. Notwithstanding that very real history, Counterfeit Constitutionalists over the last three Montana legislative sessions alone have sponsored hundreds of bills that were patently unconstitutional. Alerted to that critical flaw by legislative legal staff, Counterfeit Constitutionalists have nonetheless proceeded to ignore the Constitution and, in many cases, passed the bills anyway.<\/p>\n
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<\/a><\/div><\/div>Among these were bills that went so far as to assert that if representatives of our national government tried to enforce certain federal laws in Montana, county sheriffs would be empowered to arrest them. These politically inspired attempts at nullification are the political currency of the Counterfeit Constitutionalists, demeaning our state and devaluing our Constitution.<\/p>\n