Oklahoma House Votes to Protect Property Rights from Feds and UN
Written by Alex Newman
HB 2807, which comes on the heels of other state-led efforts to protect private property in recent years, was approved by a vote of 66 in favor and 26 against in the state House. Conservative and liberty-minded activists across the state are now working to ensure that the popular bill makes it through the state Senate. Similar legislation protecting the rights of Oklahomans from UN and federal assault was held up in committee last year by Sen. Cliff Branan, who is now running for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
“It is very important for states to re-assert their sovereignty and protect the rights of citizens from intrusive and oppressive measures coming down from the federal government and even international organizations like the UN,” Oklahoma Rep. Mike Ritze, a strong supporter of the measure, told The New American. “The states operated for two centuries quite well on their own, so what we are doing now is taking back our rightful powers and ensuring that Oklahomans can continue to live in freedom under constitutionally limited government without outside unconstitutional intervention.”
If approved by the state Senate and signed into law by Republican Governor Mary Fallin, the law would set stiff penalties for violations of citizens’ property rights by officials. It would also nullify any anti-constitutional federal or international infringements on private property or due process in the state. “This bill protects your private property from being acquired by eminent domain without a public vote or public hearing,” added state Rep. Lewis Moore, one of the legislation’s House sponsors.
Supporters of the legislation, less than three pages long, say it would have a powerful impact in terms of protecting individual rights and state sovereignty from external or internal infringement. “Any attempt to restrict private property rights without due process of law shall be deemed null and void per the Oklahoma Constitution and the United States Constitution,” the bill explains, giving property owners strong language to rely on in cases of lawless activities by officials and bureaucrats.
If a court determines that a property owner’s constitutional rights have been violated, the legislation continues, “damages shall be awarded in favor of the property owner at an amount not less than ten times the property value as assessed in the previous year by the county assessor.” Property owners victimized by official abuses of their rights would also receive three times the amount they spent on attorney fees, giving bureaucrats a strong incentive to tread carefully.
The legislation takes direct aim at anti-freedom policies originating outside of Oklahoma, too. “The state or any political subdivision of the state shall not adopt or implement policy recommendations that deliberately or inadvertently infringe upon or restrict private property rights without due process ... as may be required by policy recommendations originating in or traceable to any international or federal courts, laws, opinions, rulings, regulations, codes, restrictions or executive orders,” the bill states, defining “political subdivisions” as county, city, town, municipality, and other local government entities.
Past infringements on Oklahomans’ rights could also be thrown out under the measure. “Any changes made due to any international or federal actions shall not be considered permanent and shall be subject to change,” the legislation explains, meaning that controversial policies in Oklahoma stemming from Washington, D.C., or planetary organizations such as the despot-dominated UN could be more easily reversed. “Any debt or commitment to an international or federal entity whereby the citizens did not have the ability to exercise their constitutional rights shall be considered null and void.”
State Rep. Ritze, a Republican, noted that it was time for state governments to restore freedom and protect the individual rights of citizens. “We don’t need to roll over and be lapdogs while the federal government centralizes power over us,” he said in a phone interview. “The essence of freedom and liberty is to have local control and private property rights — we can govern ourselves much better than people thousands of miles away who don’t care about the traditions, values and liberties of our states.”
With the federal government becoming increasingly out of control, Oklahoma Rep. Ritze said, state governments have not just the right, but a duty to protect citizens. “What we want to do as state legislators is take the power back — and we have the Constitution on our side,” he explained, adding that the Founders never envisioned a massive central government like the one that exists today. “The federal government is broke and broken, and at this point it’s up to the states to fix this mess.”
As this magazine and countless experts have been warning for decades, the UN and its allies in the federal government have been fiendishly working to erode private-property rights — often bribing state and local governments to do much of the dirty work. Agenda 21, adopted at a UN “sustainability” summit in 1992 by governments and dictators but never ratified by the U.S. Senate, represents one of the international outfit’s key assaults on property rights, freedom, and self-government.
“Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, Governments, and Major Groups in every area in which human impacts [sic] on the environment,” the UN admits in a summary on its website, sparking suspicions from analysts who point out that virtually every aspect of human existence has some “impact” on the “environment.” In 2012, the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit, The New American reported from the UN conference in Rio de Janeiro that UN member governments and dictators were again meeting to continue advancing the radical agenda.
Opposition across America, however, is surging. State-government efforts to stop the deeply controversial UN plot and its myriad components, which the U.S. federal government as well as numerous state and local governments are already working to implement, have been accelerating more quickly in recent years as awareness spreads. In Alabama, for example, lawmakers in both chambers of the state legislature voted unanimously in 2012 to ban Agenda 21. When the governor signed it, Alabama became the first state to formally prohibit the radical schemes in its jurisdiction.
Numerous other state and local lawmakers from both parties all across America have also approved resolutions slamming Agenda 21 and “sustainability” schemes as a “socialist” plot to undermine private-property rights, individual liberty, and national sovereignty. Even the Republican National Committee adopted a measure calling on all Republicans nationwide to oppose the national sovereignty-undermining UN schemes.
“This United Nations Agenda 21 plan of radical so-called ‘sustainable development’ views the American way of life of private property ownership, single-family homes, private car ownership and individual travel choices, and privately owned farms all as destructive to the environment,” explains one model resolution adopted by multiple states, local governments, and the RNC. “We hereby endorse rejection of its radical policies and rejection of any grant monies attached to it.”
The UN, however, is becoming increasingly shrill with its outlandish demands and machinations. As The New American reported just last week, for example, a recent UN “sustainability” report, prepared with Obama apparatchik and policy architect John Podesta, made clear once again that even the thoughts and behavior of every individual on earth are in the planetary outfit’s crosshairs for modification.
“The new global partnership should encourage everyone to alter their worldview, profoundly and dramatically,” the report explains, one of many references. “This partnership should involve governments but also include others: people living in poverty, those with disabilities, women, civil society and indigenous and local communities, traditionally marginalised groups, multilateral institutions, local and national government, the business community, academia and private philanthropy.”
If the legislation is approved in the state Senate and signed by the governor, the law protecting private property will go into effect in November. The citizens of Oklahoma will then be able to rest a little easier, knowing that their state government stands ready to defend their individual rights from out-of-control bureaucrats at the federal and international levels.
No comments:
Post a Comment