Liberty First Documentary
Noncompliant
State Sovereignty • Constitutional Authority • The COVID Years
A live constitutional presentation on State Sovereignty, captured in Utah and transformed into a documentary during one of the most consequential disputes over governmental authority in modern American history.
Watch NONCOMPLIANT
Who Decides When Government Has Gone Too Far?
NONCOMPLIANT began as a live Liberty First Society presentation on the history and constitutional principle of State Sovereignty.
Recorded before a live audience in Utah, the presentation examines a fundamental question in the American system of government: where does federal authority end, and where do the authority and responsibility of the States begin?
That question took on new urgency during the COVID years. Businesses were ordered closed. Churches, schools and public gatherings faced restrictions. Vaccination requirements became the subject of intense national conflict. Federal, state and local officials asserted emergency powers on a scale most Americans had never personally experienced.
Across the country, Americans began asking questions about the constitutional distribution of governmental power. Governors challenged federal policies. Local officials challenged governors. Citizens challenged mandates imposed by every level of government.
In that environment, an older constitutional principle suddenly became intensely relevant: State Sovereignty.
The States Did Not Begin as Federal Departments
NONCOMPLIANT explores the historical development of the American States and the constitutional structure created by the people through the Constitution.
The federal government possesses delegated powers. Authority not delegated to the United States, and not prohibited to the States, remains with the States or the people.
The documentary places the controversies of the COVID era inside that larger historical and constitutional framework. Rather than beginning with contemporary partisan politics, it asks the more fundamental question: what system of government did Americans actually create?
Understanding that structure changes the way we evaluate mandates, emergency declarations, executive power, federalism and the relationship between the people and their governments.
A Constitutional Question Brought Into Real Life
The COVID era became the immediate historical setting for NONCOMPLIANT because disputes over business closures, vaccination requirements, public gatherings, religious assembly and emergency orders forced Americans to confront questions that had often remained theoretical: Who possesses governmental authority? From where does that authority come? What limits were placed upon it? And what remedies exist when one level of government exceeds the powers entrusted to it?
The Constitution Divides Power for a Reason.
NONCOMPLIANT examines why understanding the relationship among the people, the States and the federal government remains essential to preserving constitutional liberty.
