Marple Tunnel Syndrome: Lawmaker seeks to remove public officials who violate state's sovereignty
State Rep. Richard Marple believes the state’s sovereignty has experienced “serious erosion” and he is determined to punish the public officials who are responsible. The Hookset Republican is the prime sponsor for legislation that would cause the “immediate removal from office with no appeal” for any official who “advocates or performs any act or omission contrary to this state’s sovereignty.”
House Bill 274 would apply to every officer or employee of the state, counties, cities and towns, school districts and special districts. Officials who would fall under its purview would include “judges, legislators, consultants, jurors, and persons otherwise performing a governmental function.” Those violating the state’s sovereignty would be removed from office and would barred from holding public office for ten years.
The legislation does not address the process for removing an official nor does it address who would make the determination that the law had been violated. As guidance, it offers only Part I, Article 7 of the state Constitution: “The people of this state have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent state; and do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right, pertaining thereto, which is not, or may not hereafter be, by them expressly delegated to the United States of America in congress assembled.”
The legislation calls to mind the 2013 effort by Rep. Al Baldasaro (R-Londonderry) and former Reps. John Hikel (R-Goffstown) and Lenette Peterson (R-Merrimack) to have 189 members of the New Hampshire House removed from office for their vote to repeal the state’s “stand your ground” law. Former state Supreme Court Justice Chuck Douglas, now House legal counsel, referred to that effort at the time as “an example of constitutional illiteracy at its best.”
Nevertheless, TJ Martinell of the Tenth Amendment Center, urges Granite Staters to support the effort. “Legislative bills like HB274 convey the true spirit of the Tenth Amendment,” he writes. “The bill would make it clear to elected officials that there are consequences when they violate not only the sovereignty of their constituents, but the U.S. Constitution they swore to uphold under oath.”
HB 274 is but one of the 11 bills Marple has introduced this session. Here’s a sampling:
House Bill 509 would remove judges from the bench for jury tampering “if he or she directly or indirectly communicates with the jury with the intent of imposing his or her will and influence on a juror’s vote, opinion, decision, or other action in any case.”
House Bill 642 would let Granite Staters “use gold or silver as a medium of exchange for the receipt of allodial title in any transaction in this state.”
And then there’s House Bill 273, “an act relative to the rights of inhabitants and their political choice,” which apparently has something to do with the 1868 Expatriation Act:
I. The people of this republic shall have the exclusive choice of their political status as free born American sovereigns without subjects as provided by 15 Statutes At Large, Chapter 249, entitled “Rights of American Citizens in Foreign States” and may establish such political status by their written act filed with the corporate government.
II. The corporate government shall not require any contract or exercise any compelled performance upon any inhabitant of this state who has exercised his or her rights pursuant to 15 Statutes At Large, Chapter 249.