Conservative values first honed listening to Rush Limbaugh

Republican State Sen. Kelli Ward (Dist.5) is making national news. The Washington Times reports that the Lake Havasu physician/legislator will introduce legislation in the upcoming session to ban the National Security Agency from unconstitutional operations in Arizona. Ward describes her nullification legislation, the Fourth Amendment Protection Act, as a pre-emptive strike against the federal agency’s overreaches.

“While media attention is focused on a possible effort to shut off water to the NSA data center in Utah, I’m introducing the Arizona Fourth Amendment Protection Act to back our neighbors up,” Ward said, referencing actions by Utah’s privacy advocates to drive the agency from its borders.

“Just in case the NSA gets any ideas about moving south, I want them to know the NSA isn’t welcome in Arizona unless it follows the Constitution. There is no question that the NSA program, as it is now being run, violates the Fourth Amendment. This is a way to stop it.”

Arizona would be the first state to take such action against the NSA, though Ward’s legislation could well serve as a template for other states.

Critics claim the move has no teeth, that the Supremacy Clause binds all states to every federal mandate, regardless of its constitutionality. Advocates for constitutional protections against federal power abuse disagree, citing* both Supreme Court precedents and the philosophical roots of the Constitution itself. As more states move to assert their constitutional rights, the debate over state’s rights will surely continue.

Ward’s legislation would ban state and local officials from providing material support to the NSA — including water and electricity — make data collected by the NSA without a warrant inadmissible in state court, forbid public colleges from working with the NSA and levy sanctions against companies working with the electronic spy agency.

Read the complete news article here. And while you’re at it, take some additional time to read Dr./Sen. Ward’s impressive bio, linked under her name in the first paragraph of this post. Arizonans are electing some impressive conservatives

*H/T Heritage Foundation

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