For the Tenth time...

In an encouraging sign that all is not lost, Idaho has adopted a policy declaring that it's citizens cannot be forced to buy health insurance under federal mandates. It's a matter of the state exercising the Tenth Amendment in the Bill of Rights, which states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

There are getting to be quite a few instances around the country where states are starting to invoke their Tenth Amendment rights to protect their other amendment rights. Montana passed a law last year in an attempt to protect its citizens Second Amendment rights.

From what I have been able to gather, about 35 states have some type of 10th Amendment bill or resolution in various stages of adoption. That's the good news.

The bad news is the federal government takes a very dim view of any assertion of individual or states rights. We can fully expect them to impose sanctions on any state that resists federal mandates, probably starting with not handing back a portion of the money they took from the people in those states in the first place.

But there is also more good news. We're going to have an election this fall, and we can ask the candidates if they support the Constitution, and specifically the 10th Amendment, before we vote for them, and if they'll stick to their guns when the feds get nasty. And if they don't or won't, we can vote for someone that does and will.

And that's good news for a lot of Libertarian candidates.