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Washington Times<\/a><\/strong> If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is nullification \u2013 the idea that states can limit the enforcement of federal laws within their borders.<\/p>\n Supporters of nullification see it as a necessary and effective tool to protect states and citizens from the ever-growing power of the federal government. Detractors think this debate was settled by the Civil War, painting proponents of the idea as \u201cneo-Confederates.\u201d In fact, nullification is a growing movement with support on both sides of the political aisle.<\/p>\n As author and historian Thomas Woods notes, nullification is as old as the republic. Its first advocates were Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who drafted the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, which declared, \u201cwhensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.\u201d Jefferson and Madison acted out of dismay over the Alien and Sedition Acts, which Congress adopted to make it a misdemeanor to speak out against the government, bringing Congress and the president into \u201ccontempt or disrepute.\u201d<\/p>\n
May 29, 2013<\/p>\n