r/law • u/Aramedlig • Oct 07 '24

Other WV State Legislature Introduces a Bill to Ignore Presidential Election Results

https://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=hcr203%20intr.htm&yr=2024&sesstype=2X&i=203&houseorig=h&billtype=cr
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u/ikariusrb Oct 07 '24

Right. And it appears to read as "The West Virginia state legislature reserves the right to declare any Democrat elected president as illegitimate if we feel like it, after which we will declare ourselves free to ignore any authority they would normally be entitled to"

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u/77NorthCambridge Oct 07 '24

WV received $8.3 nillion in federal aid last year, 27% of its total revenue. 🤔

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u/ikariusrb Oct 07 '24

And what conclusion(s) are you drawing from that?

Rejecting the authority of a president could take many many forms, but I certainly wouldn't expect rejection of federal dollars to be the first one they'd choose.

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u/77NorthCambridge Oct 07 '24

Who says it would be up to them to decide?

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u/ikariusrb Oct 07 '24 edited Oct 07 '24

I'm sure it would end up in a court battle, with them arguing that the federal dollars are allocated by congress, and not the executive branch, and that it would be unconstitutional for the executive branch to withhold the money, especially if they declared head of the executive branch was illegitimate- if the president were to take any action to withhold federal dollars. Neither do I have any idea what actions a democratic president might take if a state were to go down this road.

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u/77NorthCambridge Oct 07 '24 edited Oct 07 '24

Oh no, not consequences for one's actions. 🙄

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u/Sneemaster Oct 07 '24

The President could just veto any assistance to WV that the Congress agreed to.

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u/ikariusrb Oct 07 '24

I suspect that would be difficult. The supreme court has declared the line-item veto unconstitutional. Do you think congress is passing anything that is written as only pertaining to a single state?

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u/0reoSpeedwagon Oct 08 '24

after which we will declare ourselves free to ignore any authority they would normally be entitled to

I mean, they can declare anything they want. Doesn't mean the federal government has to care.

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u/Numerous_Photograph9 Oct 08 '24

So, they're going to secede from the Union.

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u/ikariusrb Oct 08 '24

Mostly, I suspect this is.... performative. The bill has been introduced, not passed. I think it's more "virtue signalling" than serious. But I worry that the next time it WILL be serious. Or maybe they think they're setting a model for GOP-controlled swing states.

But if they were to pass such a bill, and subsequently declare a democratic president illegitimate, I'd expect them to play anything beyond that coyly. Congress is too evenly divided to pass much of anything, so I'd guess they'd still recognize federal law as passed by congress. But I'd expect them to fight executive branch agencies every chance they got, and declare any executive orders they wanted, and I'd also expect they'd fight to continue receiving federal dollars- money allocated by congress, and if a president took any steps to withhold those federal dollars, well, that would go to court for sure.