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"The courts can strike a law down. The executive branch could refuse to enforce it. People in large numbers might refuse to comply. A number of states could pass a law making its enforcement illegal. Or a number a states could refuse to cooperate in any way with its enforcement."

During the 2012 election alone, nearly a dozen states voted on measures that snubbed Washington's authority, ranging from marijuana to Obamacare.

As WND reported, Arizona and Montana reviewed proposals that would set up standing state commissions to review "all existing federal statutes, mandates, and executive orders" to determine their constitutionality.

The commissions would recommend to state lawmakers whether or not any particular federal plan should be nullified in that state.

Weighing in on the subject, WND columnist Walter Williams argued that "moral people" can't rely only on courts to determine what is right and wrong.

"Suppose Congress enacted a law - and the Supreme Court ruled it constitutional - requiring American families to attend church services at least three times a month," he wrote. "Should we obey such a law? Suppose Congress, acting under the Constitution's commerce clause, enacted a law requiring motorists to get eight hours of sleep before driving on interstate highways. Its justification might be that drowsy motorists risk highway accidents, and accidents affect interstate commerce. Suppose you were a jury member during the 1850s and a free person were on trial for assisting a runaway slave, in clear violation of the Fugitive Slave Act. Would you vote to convict and punish?

"A moral person would find each one of those laws either morally repugnant or to be a clear violation of our Constitution. You say, 'Williams, you're wrong this time. In 1859, in Ableman v. Booth, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 constitutional.' That court decision, as well as some others in our past, makes my case. Moral people can't rely solely on the courts to establish what's right or wrong. Slavery is immoral; therefore, any laws that support slavery are also immoral. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, 'to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions (is) a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.'"

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