Florida Senate - 2022 SB 422
By Senator Pizzo
38-00602-22 2022422__
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to mobilization of the National Guard;
3 creating s. 250.475, F.S.; providing a short title;
4 defining terms; prohibiting release of the Florida
5 National Guard or any member thereof from this state
6 into active duty combat without a declaration of war
7 or other official action by the United States
8 Congress; requiring the Governor to take all necessary
9 actions to comply with such prohibition; providing an
10 effective date.
11
12 WHEREAS, Article I, Section 8 of the United States
13 Constitution vests in the United States Congress the exclusive
14 power of war, and
15 WHEREAS, in spite of the clear language of the United
16 States Constitution vesting the power of war exclusively in the
17 United States Congress, the United States executive branch has
18 unconstitutionally assumed that power while the United States
19 Congress has abdicated its constitutional duty, and
20 WHEREAS, although the United States Congress has not
21 officially declared war in over 70 years, the United States has
22 during that time gone to war repeatedly at the direction of the
23 executive branch, and
24 WHEREAS, when such unconstitutional actions are taken by
25 the Federal Government, it is the proper role of the states to
26 take action to remedy such situations, as stated in the Virginia
27 and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, and
28 WHEREAS, founding father and first president George
29 Washington wrote, “The Constitution vests the power of declaring
30 war in Congress; therefore, no offensive expedition of
31 importance can be undertaken until after they shall have
32 deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure,” and
33 WHEREAS, the Father of the Constitution, James Madison,
34 wrote, “The Constitution supposes, what the History of all
35 Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of
36 power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has
37 accordingly with studied care vested the question of war to the
38 Legislature,” and
39 WHEREAS, the author of the Declaration of Independence,
40 Thomas Jefferson, wrote, “We have already given in example one
41 effectual check to the dog of war by transferring the power of
42 letting him loose from the Executive to the Legislative
43 body...,” and, “Considering that Congress alone is
44 constitutionally invested with the power of changing our
45 condition from peace to war, I have thought it my duty to await
46 their authority for using force in any degree which could be
47 avoided,” and
48 WHEREAS, another founding father and defender of the United
49 States Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, wrote, “’The Congress
50 shall have the power to declare war’; the plain meaning of which
51 is, that it is the peculiar and exclusive duty of Congress, when
52 the nation is at peace, to change that state into a state of
53 war...,” NOW, THEREFORE,
54
55 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
56
57 Section 1. Section 250.475, Florida Statutes, is created to
58 read:
59 250.475 Mobilization of National Guard into active duty
60 combat.—
61 (1) SHORT TITLE.—This section shall be known as the “Defend
62 the Guard Act.”
63 (2) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the term:
64 (a) “Active duty combat” means performing the following
65 services in the active federal military service of the United
66 States:
67 1. Participation in an armed conflict;
68 2. Performance of a hazardous service in a foreign state;
69 or
70 3. Performance of a duty through an instrumentality of war.
71 (b) “Official declaration of war” means an official
72 declaration of war made by the United States Congress pursuant
73 to Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States
74 Constitution.
75 (3) MOBILIZATION INTO ACTIVE DUTY; DECLARATION OF WAR.
76 Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Florida
77 National Guard and any member thereof may not be released from
78 this state into active duty combat unless the United States
79 Congress has made an official declaration of war or has taken an
80 official action pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 15 of
81 the United States Constitution to explicitly call forth the
82 Florida National Guard and any member thereof for the enumerated
83 purposes of expressly executing the laws of the union, repelling
84 an invasion, or suppressing an insurrection. The Governor shall
85 take all actions necessary to comply with this section.
86 Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.