"State legislatures in the US are considering more than 200 bills – from gun rights to marijuana accessibility – that would nullify or work around various federal laws and regulations crafted in Washington, according to a states’ rights advocacy group.

The Tenth Amendment Center told The Hill the 200-plus pieces of current legislation seeking to challenge or wrest control from the federal government mark a climate of both suspicion and empowerment. The center tracks and supports states’ rights initiatives across the country.

Twelve states are seeking to challenge federal surveillance authority vested in the likes of the National Security Agency, revealed in June 2013 to be operating a global spying regime to advance American domestic and foreign policy goals.

In another 12 states, bills have been introduced to legalize some form of marijuana, whether it be medical, recreational, or both.

Both the New Jersey state Assembly and Senate have passed a measure to halt the state’s participation in the Pentagon’s 1033 program, which supplies surplus military weaponry to local law enforcement agencies. Gov. Chris Christie has yet to sign the bill into law.

Seven states have introduced measures that would mean opting out of the federal government’s purported authority to indefinitely detain a person within the US, a power that was granted under the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force. The NDAA provision was signed by President Barack Obama in early 2012 amid the Occupy movement in the US.

Three states – California, Michigan, and Virginia – have passed some form of an anti-indefinite detention law."


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