He was making distinction between laws and 'Executive Orders', and in no way was talking about 'Nullification of federal laws by states' as you expressed it.Īrguably, the new EOs that establish gun control establish new law, which goes beyond constitutional authority (though the only authoritative answer on that would require SCOTUS): If it goes through Congress, if it becomes law, if it goes that way, yeah, I'd enforce the law. The problem is that none of the 4 US States (VA/KY/MA/PA) that officially call themselves 'Commonwealth' are legally in a commonwealth status like Puerto Rico is, so overall he was wrong, since he's an officer in KY and not PR.Īlso, in the interest of clarity, that same official quoted in your question very explicitly stated that: Self-governing, autonomous political unit voluntarily associated with the United States, namely, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands. taxes) don't apply, so in one way, the good Sheriff was right. The origin of the law should be considered irrelevant.Īctually, in a Commonwealth (e.g. The question is only asking for a legal difference between states and commonwealths as conflictingly referenced by Wikipedia and the article cited in the question.

Therefore, is there any justification to that statement due to Kentucky's status as a Commonwealth?ĮDIT: Please do not focus on the constitutionality of any specific federal statute. Nullification of federal laws by states has been tried and challenged in the Supreme Court (see the Civil War) before and subsequently ruled to be unconstitutional via the Supremacy Clause. I can askįederal people to leave, they have to leave. In that article a local official in Kentucky was quoted as saying: However, an article I was reading today speaks of local law enforcement officers who are refusing to enforce any new federal gun laws that may be passed in response to the recent mass shootings around the country. The Wikipedia article for Commonwealth States indicates that there is no legal distinction between these states and other states and no differences in the rights enjoyed by citizens of these states.

Some of the 'states' in the United States are referred to as a Commonwealth rather than State (Virginia, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Pennsylvania specifically).

What states are commonwealth states