WEST VIRGINIA RECORD

Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank have departed from Congress and are no longer in positions of power where they can wreak havoc on the country with bad laws, as they did for decades. But Dodd-Frank, the eponymous monster they created, lives on.

Otherwise known, ironically, as the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Dodd-Frank is a truly unjust law. Accordingly, per Augustine, it is no law at all and should be considered null and void.

Nullification, the right of any State to refuse to uphold an unjust federal law, is usually a last resort, however, asserted after all other remedies have been exhausted. And so, here we are, continuing the quest in the courts to have Dodd-Frank -- or portions of that abomination -- overturned.

Earlier this year, West Virginia State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey joined a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of some provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. Not surprisingly, a federal judge dismissed the suit.

“Title II of the Dodd-Frank Act and the Orderly Liquidation Authority negatively impacts West Virginia and its taxpayers,” Morrisey charged, when first joining the suit. “The Orderly Liquidation Authority allows unelected Washington bureaucrats to pick winners and losers among affected creditors, entirely abandoning the rule of law.”

Morrisey emphasized that this provision “potentially jeopardizes millions of dollars in state pension funds and other state investments.”

Morrisey and the other state AGs who participated in the suit are now appealing the dismissal, arguing that Title II of the act violates the U.S. Constitution’s separation of powers, the Fifth Amendment right to due process, and the constitutional requirement that the nation’s bankruptcy laws be uniform.

Judges are sworn to uphold the Constitution. It is also in their best interest, ultimately, to overturn unjust laws, so as not to undermine the respect that citizens have for judges, courts, and law. Dodd-Frank is a law that cries out for negation. If the courts don’t kill it, the states and the people will.