Thomas E. Woods

August 26, 2010 --I met author New York Times best-selling author Thomas E. Woods, Jr. at the Valley Forge Freedom Action Conference in early August, but was unable to interview him then.

I did get the chance to interview him on the telephone last week, and we talked about his latest book, "Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century," the firearms freedom movement, Wisconsin's use of nullification in the Fugitive Slave Act, and the practical uses of nullification.

He talked about what to do about a federal government which "acts as if there is no Constitution," and the origins of nullification being the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions -- crafted by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison -- which asserted that "an unconstitutional law is no law at all."

"These don't strike me as uniquely right-wing ideas and movements. These are American causes. These are American causes that transcend labels, and I could very easily see Vermont using nullification, and California using it for different purposes than what Texas or Tennessee might use it for. But that's fine. The United States is supposed to be a collection of self-governing communities, and yeah, they're not all going to be the same. That's the beauty of the system."

Listen to the interview here:

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