It wasn’t quite the firing on Fort Sumter that launched the
Civil War. But on April 1, your Georgia Senate did threaten by a
vote of 43-1 to secede from and even disband the United States.
It was not an April Fool’s joke. In fact, Senate Resolution 632
did a lot more than merely threaten to end this country. It
stated that under the Constitution, the only crimes the federal
government could prosecute were treason, piracy and slavery.
“Therefore, all acts of Congress which assume to create, define
or punish [other] crimes … are altogether void, and of no
force,” the Georgia Senate declared. In other words, in the
infinite, almost unanimous wisdom of the Georgia Senate, Michael
Vick is being imprisoned illegally, Bernie Madoff should serve
no time for stealing $60 billion and the Unabomber must go free.
In fact, the federal penitentiary in Atlanta should be emptied
of its inmates. But wait, there’s more. The resolution goes on
to endorse the theory that states have the right to abridge
constitutional freedoms o