State Rep. Cook Rejects GOP Platform and
Embraces Roe v. Wade
By
James Scott Trimm
And as Chair of the Texas House State
Affairs Committee, Byron Cook has repeatedly used his position to water down
and even block pro-life legislation.
Byron Cook pretends to be pro-life but in
May 2015 Cook wrote a public letter defending late-term abortions on babies who
are diagnosed with a disability!
Recently at a hearing for a pro-life bill,
Cook had a citizen dragged out of the meeting by force and arrested for the
crime of recording the meeting (a right which Texas State law is supposed to
guarantee.)
Now Cook is at it again. Cook is refusing to even grant HB 948 a
hearing claiming that the bill is “unconstitutional”.
HB 948 is a bill that would end abortion in
Texas by invoking the US Constitution and the tenth amendment. The tenth amendment states that the states
and the people retain all powers not delegated to the federal government in the
US Constitution. Since the US
Constitution does not delegate power to the federal government in the area of
medical procedures, but does guarantee the right to life saying a person may
not be deprived of life “without due process of law;” (14th
Amendment) Moreover the Preamble to the Constitution says:
"We the People of the United States,
in Order to... secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Therefore the Constitutional right not to
be deprived of life without due process of law extends not only to “ourselves”
but to “our posterity” which by definition means the unborn.
Furthermore the US Constitution does not
delegate power to any branch of the Federal Government, including SCOTUS, to be
the exclusive or final interpreter of the US Constitution. To the contrary Thomas Jefferson wrote:
“…this [federal] government, created by
this compact [the Constitution], was not made the exclusive or final judge of
the extent of the powers delegated to itself, since that would have made its
discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as
in all other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party
has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode
and measure of redress."
(Thomas Jefferson; Kentucky Resolution
1798)
And James Madison, the father of the US
Constitution wrote:
The Constitution of the United States was
formed by the sanction of the states, given by each in its sovereign capacity.
It adds to the stability and dignity, as well as to the authority, of the
Constitution, that it rests on this legitimate and solid foundation. The
states, then, being the parties to the constitutional compact, and in their
sovereign capacity, it follows of necessity that there can be no tribunal,
above their authority, to decide, in the last resort, whether the compact made
by them be violated; and consequently, that, as the parties to it, they must
themselves decide, in the last resort, such questions as may be of sufficient
magnitude to require their interposition.
(James Madison; Report on the Virginia
Resolutions of 1798)
In a recent letter to Byron Cook, HB 948
Author State Representative Tony Tinderholt recalled Cook’s past opposition to
pro-life bills:
"...all human life is precious and
should be protected under state and federal law. I have voted for every
pro-life bill that has come before the Texas House since my time in the
legislature. I know we disagree on this issue, as you have taken positions that
have affirmed your belief that there are unborn children who should be able to be
aborted in our state."
Tinderholt then wrote:
"Representative Cook, we are the Texas
Legislature. We determine what laws are best to protect our citizens. Perhaps
you and I have a difference of opinion on whether or not Roe v. Wade should be
the law of the land. Perhaps that is the more serious difference of opinion we
face."
"Representative Cook, I will not let
you hide behind the Office of Attorney General on this issue. You are the
Chairman of the House Committee on State Affairs. In reference to issues before
your committee, you alone decide which bills get a hearing and which do not.”
Perhaps Representative Cook should be
reminded that nullification of federal court rulings by the Texas Legislature
is part of the 2016 Texas Republican Party Platform:
State Sovereignty- Pursuant to Article 1
Section 1 of the Texas Constitution, the federal government has impaired our
right of local self-government.
Therefore, federally mandated legislation, which infringes upon the 10th
Amendment rights of Texas, should be ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified.
Regulation of Commerce in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution has exceeded
the original intent. All attempts by the federal judiciary to rule in areas not
expressly enumerated by the Untied States Constitution should be likewise
nullified. Any federal enforcement activities that do occur in Texas should be
conducted under the authority of the county sheriff.
Moreover the 2016 Texas Republican Party
specifically calls upon the Texas Legislature to “ignore and refuse to enforce
any and all federal… court rulings,
which would deprive an unborn child of the right to life.”
Abolish Abortion- We call upon the Texas
Legislature to enact legislation stopping the murder of unborn children; and to
ignore and refuse to enforce any and all federal statutes, regulations,
executive orders, and court rulings, which would deprive an unborn child of the
right to life.
HB 948 is a platform item. The constitutionality of nullification and
the non-constitutionality of Roe v. Wade are also platform items. Moreover “strict adherence to the original
intent” of the “US Constitution” is also spelled out in the Party platform.
It appears that Byron Cook rejects the
primary tenants of the Republican Party platform, but does believe that there
is a Constitutional Right to an abortion!
Byron Cook’s position seems to believe that
his own position on these issues is so weak, that it cannot withstand debate in
an open Committee hearing, nor does he believe our elected representatives
should be allowed to debate this bill on the house floor and vote on it.
Lord Byron wants to decide all by himself.
