As almost everyone now knows, federal law will ban production of incandescent light bulbs in a few years. (I forget just when it takes effect.) But as Edward Cline notes in this blog post, the Texas legislature has just passed a bill that would nullify that ban within the state. The measure has gone to Governor Perry and if he won’t sign it, people will never take him seriously again when he talks about limiting federal authority.
But isn’t nullification illegal? Both Jefferson and Madison said that it is exactly what the states should do when the federal government exceeds its powers. They were writing with regard to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, arguing that state officials should protect citizens against federal attempts to punish them for exercising their rights under the First Amendment. The feds have no more authority to punish people for making the wrong kinds of light bulbs than to punish people for criticizing the government.
Stick to your guns, Texans. Do NC legislators have as much backbone?
