Is Nullification a Practical Method for Limiting the Federal Government?

Nullification, one of the newer books out by author Tom Woods is about the use of nullification. Tom Woods recently went on Judge Napolitano's show Freedom Watch to talk about nullification and that video is posted on YouTube.



I generally like the work of Tom Woods, especially his writing about Catholic history and even the general state of economics. Meltdown is one of his most popular books, and was arguably one of the first books to come out after we got into this recession about the ultimate cause of the downturn.

This book, though, is a little less about economics and more about a political idea. Nullification is a method by which states can basically overturn a federal law by refusing to abide by it. One of the most important uses of it was before the Civil War when northern states decided to nullify the fugitive slave law. Since the Civil War, though, it has not been used much, but Tom Woods sees it as a definite possibility for states to regain their sovereignty. Jim Gourdie, a popular blogger over at Conservatives on Fire has written a few posts on this very subject that you can find here and here (if you are having trouble reading his posts just press ctrl+a to highlight the text).

So is Nullification a real possibility for limiting the size of our federal government? Tom Woods seems to think so, but what do you think?