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U.S. vs TX, Forget Invasion, It’s the Tenth Amendment

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Elderberry:
The Post & Email by William L. Kovacs 5/2/2024

Litigation between Texas and the United States over Texas’s right to defend itself by securing its border with Mexico from the onslaught of illegal immigration addresses momentous yet unexplored constitutional issues. Can Texas defend itself? Can the federal government force Texas to absorb the financial and social cost of illegal immigration?

While U.S. Supreme Court precedent finds these types of disputes non-justiciable political questions to be resolved by Congress, there is legal precedent under the Tenth Amendment that likely shifts the responsibility for and cost of illegal immigration from Texas to the federal government.

Has Texas been invaded? Texas hangs its cowboy hat on two provisions of the Constitution, Article I, section 10 (“Compacts clause“) and Article IV, section 4 (“Guarantee Clause”). The Compacts Clause prohibits states from engaging in war unless the state is invaded or “in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.” The Guarantee Clause mandates that the United States guarantee each state a Republican form of government and “protect each of them [states] against invasion.

The keyword in both clauses is “invade,” or derivations of the term.

The few etymologists dissecting these terms conclude that millions of illegals entering the U.S. is not an invasion. A study by The Tenth Amendment Center traces the term from the first English dictionary in 1755 to the present. The term “invasion” has been consistently characterized as a foreign military power equipped with weapons intending to commit physical violence against another country. 

A Texas Public Policy Foundation study, “The Meaning of Invasion Under the Compact Clause of the U.S. Constitution” (2022), concluded that when the Constitution was drafted, the term “invade” involved two core concepts: entry and enmity (intent to act in armed conflict). The Foundation’s definition of invasion includes state and non-state warfare that seeks to “overthrow the lawful sovereignty of the state.” Under this reasoning, cartel activities could be an “invasion” if Texas can establish violent intent to challenge its sovereignty.

More: https://www.thepostemail.com/2024/05/02/u-s-vs-tx-forget-invasion-its-the-tenth-amendment/

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