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http://www.tomwoods.com/nullification-answering-the-objections/
"Nullification violates the Constitution's Supremacy Clause."
This may be the most foolish, ill-informed argument against nullification of all. It is the reply we often hear from law school graduates and professors, who are taught only the nationalist version of American history and constitutionalism. It is yet another reason, as a colleague of mine says, never to confuse legal training with an education.
Thus we read in a recent AP article, "The efforts are completely unconstitutional in the eyes of most legal scholars because the U.S. Constitution deems federal laws `the supreme law of the land.'" (Note, by the way, the reporter's use of the unnecessary word "completely," betraying his bias.)
What the Supremacy Clause actually says is: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof…shall be the supreme law of the land."
In other words, the standard law-school response deletes the most significant words of the whole clause. Thomas Jefferson was not unaware of, and did not deny, the Supremacy Clause. His point was that only the Constitution and laws which shall be made in pursuance thereof shall be the supreme law of the land. Citing the Supremacy Clause merely begs the question. A nullifying state maintains that a given law is not "in pursuance thereof" and therefore that the Supremacy Clause does not apply in the first place.
Such critics are expecting us to believe that the states would have ratified a Constitution with a Supremacy Clause that said, in effect, "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, plus any old laws we may choose to pass, whether constitutional or not, shall be the supreme law of the land."
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