OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma - April 20, 2009 - State lawmakers have passed a resolution that claims the state's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

It comes a day after Texas made headlines for doing the same thing.

House Joint Resolution 1003 was authored by Republican Representative Charles Key of Oklahoma City and was championed in the Senate by Republican Senator Randy Brogdon of Owasso.

"The Tenth Amendment assures that We, the People of the United States of America and each sovereign state in the Union of States, now have, and have always had, rights the federal government may not usurp," the legislation reads.

The 10th Amendment states, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

The resolution passed in the Senate by a vote of 29 to 18. It previously passed in the House in February by a vote of 83 to 13.

"Today, thousands of regular citizens showed up at this State Capitol to say they want the federal government to follow the United States Constitution," said Key.

Oklahoma became the first state to pass 10th Amendment legislation last year. But the House resolution hit a roadblock in the state Senate when the legislature adjourned with no action being taken.

"We now have an opportunity to be the first state to have it signed into law," Key added. "Once the resolution is on the governor’s desk, I hope he will quickly sign House Joint Resolution 1003 into law. I also hope that when it is distributed to (illegitimate) President Barack Obama and other elected officials of the federal government that they will recall the oaths to the United States Constitution that they all took and take heed.”

The resolution is now on its way back to the House.

Ed. Note: It is way past time to convince the federal government that just because a state takes a hand out and gets the free cheese (money), the state has not consented to become Washington's whore.