Assembly Joint Resolution
No. 30
CHAPTER 195
Relative to nuclear weapons.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
September 05, 2018.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AJR 30, Aguiar-Curry.
Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017.
This measure would urge the United States Congress to speedily take up and pass the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017, and send it to the President for his signature.
Digest Key
Fiscal Committee:
NO WHEREAS, Nuclear weapons are uniquely powerful instruments with the capability to instantly kill millions of people, including noncombatants and children, and to create long-term health and environmental damage throughout the world, including the lands and people of the nation using them. These weapons have the capability to directly undermine global peace and place the United States at existential risk from retaliatory nuclear strikes; and
WHEREAS, Global spiritual leaders have noted that nuclear weapons exist in the service of a mentality of fear that affects not only parties in conflict but the entire human race, so that the real priorities facing our human family, such as the fight against poverty, the promotion of peace, and the undertaking of educational, ecological, and health care projects are relegated to second place; and
WHEREAS, The United States possesses the world’s paramount nuclear weapons capability, as well as its paramount conventional warfare capability; and
WHEREAS, The framers of the United States Constitution understood that the monumental decision to go to war, which can result in massive death and the destruction of civilized society, must be made by the representatives of the people in Congress and not by a single person; and
WHEREAS, The United States Constitution gives Congress the sole power to declare war; and
WHEREAS, By any definition of war, a first-use nuclear strike from the United States would constitute a major act of war; and
WHEREAS, Several California cities, including Berkeley, Davis, Hayward, Oakland, and Santa Cruz, have recognized this threat, and expressed their concern by declaring themselves “Nuclear-Free Zones”; and
WHEREAS, California’s coastal location and business hub of cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco, make it particularly vulnerable to attack; and
WHEREAS, The Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017, sponsored by 73 members of the House of Representatives and 13 Senators as House Resolution 669 and Senate Resolution 200, respectively, embodies a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons without a Congressional Declaration of War and a requirement of a specific authorization by Congress for first use of nuclear weapons without limiting retaliation for another party’s first use, all consistent with the United States Constitution; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly and the Senate of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature urges the United States Congress to speedily take up and pass the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act of 2017, and send it to the President for his signature; and be it further
Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.