The Blaze is all, well ablaze, about certain portions of President Obama’s jobs bill. In a true sky-is-falling moment the site claims, and the commenters are in rabid agreement, that the real American Jobs Act "trashes" the Constitution, "overrides" State's rights, and leads us all to rump of skunk and madness.
I won't drive more traffic to that site, so please join me below the squigglethorpe for excerpts from the article and commentary.
From "The Blaze"
With the introduction of The American Jobs Act, Americans may soon witness a rerun of the Obama healthcare struggle. Much like its predecessor, president Obama’s newest bill contains certain provisions that would appear to benefit those who wrote the bill more than those for whom the bill was supposedly written.
For instance, buried deep, deep on page 133 of the bill, it states:
SEC. 376. FEDERAL AND STATE IMMUNITY.
(a) Abrogation of State Immunity- A State shall not be immune under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution from a suit brought in a Federal court of competent jurisdiction for a violation of this Act.
Come again? Under the bill’s authority, states are not immune from federal prosecution if they “violate” the act. In the event this bill passes, it will override a state’s sovereign authority as defined and protected under the 11th amendment:
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
By what authority does a bill that seeks to “create jobs” and concern itself with things such as “payroll relief” and “teacher stabilization” have the right to override the 11th amendment?
It gets even better:
(A) WAIVER- A State’s receipt or use of Federal financial assistance for any program or activity of a State shall constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity, under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution or otherwise, to a suit brought by an employee or applicant for employment of that program or activity under this Act for a remedy authorized under Section 375(c) of this Act [emphasis added].
Any state that receives Federal assistance under the direction of bill automatically forfeits its sovereign immunity. Should an employe of the act seek federal prosecution, the state must abide.
They will literally make a Federal case out of it. The bill continues:
(2) EFFECTIVE DATE- With respect to a particular program or activity, paragraph (1) applies to conduct occurring on or after the day, after the date of enactment of this Act, on which a State first receives or uses Federal financial assistance for that program or activity.
c) Remedies Against State Officials- An official of a State may be sued in the official capacity of the official by any employee or applicant for employment who has complied with the applicable procedures of this Act, for relief that is authorized under this Act.
(d) Remedies Against the United States and the States- Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, in an action or administrative proceeding against the United States or a State for a violation of this Act, remedies (including remedies at law and in equity) are available for the violation to the same extent as such remedies would be available against a non-governmental entity.
It would seem that The American Jobs Act was drafted in order to achieve statist goals rather than create jobs. The authority of individual states is all but thrown to the side.
Really, it would seem that the person writing the article is more interested in "trashing" the truth and "overriding" fact in order to get readers of The Blaze even more whipped up than usual.
Show of hands; who actually read the 11th amendment as quoted in the article? Some of you? Good. You'll notice that the amendment grants a limited form of Sovereign Immunity to the States. They cannot be sued by citizens of other states and the SCOTUS later ruled that this also included suits by citizens of their own states.
How many read the highlighted sections of the Jobs Act? Did you notice where the act would require States accepting Federal money to waive their protections under the 11th amendment? Sound sinister? It isn't.
What an 11th amendment waiver allows is for citizens to bring suit against States that accept Federal money, yet violate Federal laws or the provisions of the act under which they accepted said money. It also allows suit against a State when a State's official participates in corrupt actions or violations of labor and fair hiring laws.
Our old friend the 14th amendment also comes in to play, as waivers of 11th amendment immunities are often requested because they allow the Federal government to enforce guarantees of debt. If I were the owner of a construction company, this is exactly the sort of thing I'd want to see, as it prevents States from hiring my company to do a job, then refusing to pay. Without a waiver, the owner of a company wouldn't have legal standing to sue a State for damages. (read: non-payment of contracts) However, since the Federal government is picking up the tab, they are incurring a public debt, which must be paid.
All that being said, I applied a little of The Blaze's own logic in coming up with the diary title. By having such a screaming fit about a pretty common (and specific and temporary) waiver of rights, they are obviously pro-corruption and pro-theft because a State COULD engage in corrupt activity and COULD refuse to pay a contractor, and if the 11th amendment protections were intact COULD argue that no suit can be brought by a citizen, and because they CAN, they obviously are.