OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — President Barack Obama may have won re-election, but conservative Republicans still control many states, and legislative leaders in some of them have established special states' rights committees to handle a surge of bills rejecting federal authority.
Bills making it a felony to enforce the new federal health care law or prohibiting physicians from asking patients about firearms are just a few of those popping up in the Oklahoma House's new states' rights committee.
Similar panels have been formed in Texas and Utah and have been proposed in Alaska, Missouri and Tennessee.
Some critics dismiss the committee sessions as little more than political grandstanding for conservative voters since most of the proposals considered would be unconstitutional. But the panels are providing more public attention for sovereignty issues that once were sidetracked.
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