Who would have imagined that it would come to this? Leftish activists are campaigning to have the Confederate flag removed from statehouses, statues of southern statesmen removed from campuses and public spaces, and the names of campus buildings changed to remove any they deem racist. These very same campaigners, or at least their leaders, are finding time to demand that their cities and states interpose their authority between the federal government and the people of their city or state.
The word hypocrisy fails to do their work the dishonor it deserves. The doctrine of interposition, born in 1798, was the work of none other than James Madison, author of the Virginia Resolution. For obvious reasons, the theory appealed to Southern states eager to preserve the institution of slavery. The Supreme Court ruled against attempts at interposition in a series of cases in the early 19th century, and again in the 1950s when Southerners attempted to rely on it to support continued school segregation. And yet again in 2012 when the state of Arizona attempted to rely on a modern variant to assert its authority over immigration policy.
