The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - The Pros and Cons of city pre-emption

btmj · March 13, 2014, 10:55 PM

fishing cabin - you argue by taking the situation to an extreme... at which point it becomes ridiculous. point taken...

But..... we are talking about a very real and specific situation. Cities and counties are political subdivisions of states. The state can override any city and county law. The state can dissolve cities and counties, or rearrange their borders. The cities and counties have no sovereignty with respect to the state, except that the state allows it by statute.

States are not (in this sense) political subdivisions of the United States. States have a sovereignty separate from the US. The constitution lays out which powers the US has versus those powers the states have.

If the states are prohibited from violating a civil right (such as freedom of assembly, or the RKBA), then there is no way that a city or county within a state may do so.

We don't allow cities to exercise a prior restraint on speech just because the citizens don't want to hear from the KKK or the Gays or Evangelicals or the whatever. I.e. cities can't preempt the 1st amendment. Nor can they preempt the 2nd.

March 13, 2014, 10:55 PM	#34
btmj Senior Member Join Date: November 1, 2011 Location: Near St. Louis, Missouri Posts: 864	fishing cabin - you argue by taking the situation to an extreme... at which point it becomes ridiculous. point taken... But..... we are talking about a very real and specific situation. Cities and counties are political subdivisions of states. The state can override any city and county law. The state can dissolve cities and counties, or rearrange their borders. The cities and counties have no sovereignty with respect to the state, except that the state allows it by statute. States are not (in this sense) political subdivisions of the United States. States have a sovereignty separate from the US. The constitution lays out which powers the US has versus those powers the states have. If the states are prohibited from violating a civil right (such as freedom of assembly, or the RKBA), then there is no way that a city or county within a state may do so. We don't allow cities to exercise a prior restraint on speech just because the citizens don't want to hear from the KKK or the Gays or Evangelicals or the whatever. I.e. cities can't preempt the 1st amendment. Nor can they preempt the 2nd.