Historic Constitutional Amendment Filed for NH to Exit United States

Thanks to two heroic state representatives, New Hampshire has now taken the lead nationally in the independence movement. Yesterday, five-term state rep Mike Sylvia filed the text of a constitutional amendment that would, if passed, declare independence from the United States:

“Are you in favor of amending the first part of the New Hampshire Constitution by inserting, after article 7, a new article to read as follows:

 

[Art.] 7-a. [Independent Nation.] New Hampshire declares itself as independent from the United States and peaceably, immediately proceeds as a sovereign nation. All other references to the United States in this constitution and state statutes and regulations are nullified.”

To pass, it must first receive over 60% of the vote in both the state house and senate. If it does, it will then be placed on the 2022 ballot and then must receive over 2/3rds of the vote to be enacted. If so, it goes into effect immediately. There would be no political games like with United Kingdom’s “Brexit” from the European Union, which took several years to hammer out after the vote. New Hampshire will instantly declare our independence and nullify all standing agreements with the federal government gang. Compare this to the thus-far unsuccessful attempts in other US states.

In recent years, secession movements around the country have sprung up and made headlines in California and Texas, but with very little legislative support. In Texas, a state rep filed a bill this year that if passed, would merely have placed a non-binding referendum on the ballot for Texas voters to register their opinion on whether the Texas legislature should begin an arduous process of figuring out how to leave the United States. This bill’s filing resulted in plenty of media coverage and discussion, however, it died before even receiving a committee hearing. A key reason that New Hampshire was chosen as the destination for the Free State Project is that EVERY bill gets a public committee hearing, no matter how much support it has from the state reps. Most states are like Texas, where it’s a political game whether a bill even gets a hearing.

In California, a left-leaning group called “Yes California” has been trying for years to get an independence question on the ballot by gathering the hundreds-of-thousands of required signatures. If passed, the measure would require the legislature to declare independence from the US and become its own republic. So far, they have been unsuccessful despite garnering significant media coverage. Currently their website is offline, though their Twitter is still active. Even if they do get the question on the ballot and it passes, they may not survive the inevitable court challenge given the CA state constitution provides that California, “is an inseparable part of the United States of America.”

While I want to see both Texas and California exit the United States, it’s clear that with the filing of this constitutional amendment bill – called in NH a “CACR” or, “Constitutional Amendment Concurrent Resolution” – that New Hampshire has taken the clear lead in the race to see who will leave the union first. Plus, unlike California, the NH constitution clearly protects the “Right of Revolution” in Article 10 and “State Sovereignty” in Article 7 of the NH Bill of Rights.

Representative Sylvia, in an exclusive interview with Free Keene, had this to say on why he filed the proposed amendment, “The people of America have forgotten their history, if we take the time to look at our roots we can see that our constitutions have received ‘lip service’ for far too long. While I can not change the direction of the federal government, I can hold up the New Hampshire constitution and demand that we honor its clear directives. Article 10 reads in part, ‘whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government.'”

The 2018 liberty “Legislator of the Year” representative Sylvia is joined by freshman state rep from the Keene area, Matt Santonastaso as the co-sponsor of the amendment. Other state reps have been approached and have expressed support and a full list will be released when the amendment is assigned a CACR number and moves onto a committee.

The process is just beginning, with Sylvia submitting the proposed text to NH Legislative Services on Monday. It may take several weeks for them to officially draft the CACR and send it back to Sylvia for final approval. It then is assigned to a committee which will then hold a public hearing sometime in early 2022. What happens from there is up to the committee and will largely depend on how much public support the amendment receives at its hearing.

Even if it doesn’t pass this time, it will get many conversations started about the evil federal government and why peacefully declaring independence is the best solution. Minds will be persuaded and changed. Many media and political attacks will be brought against us, as the power-seekers will be desperate to keep the status quo. Potential migrants to New Hampshire will be energized and make-the-move.

To learn more about why NH should divorce DC, check out the Foundation for NH Independence’s Frequently Asked Questions and Liberty Block’s “70+ Reasons to Divorce DC” and “Twelve Benefits of NH Independence“.

To help the movement, you can contact your local state reps in support of the amendment, connect with other supporters online, and more. Visit the “How You Can Help” page on NHexit.us for a full list of ideas.

Stay tuned to Free Keene and the Liberty Block for the latest on this historic process.