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Michael Boldin is the founder and executive director of the Tenth Amendment Center (TAC), an organization that favors 鈥渘ullification鈥� of federal laws it considers unconstitutional. Founded in 2007, the TAC is based on an expansive reading of the Tenth Amendment, which says that those 鈥減owers 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.鈥�

Boldin describes the TAC, which offers model bills and resolutions on its website, as 鈥渁 non-partisan think tank that supports the principles of strictly limited constitutional government.鈥� Boldin evidently runs the organization from his home, which also houses Webstores, LLC, where he is listed as manager.

As a practical matter, however, the TAC is on the political far right, opposing a whole array of federal laws and regulations. It has gained wide support among hard-line libertarians and neo-Confederates who are still angry at the powers the federal government accumulated after the Civil War that allowed it, among other things, to act against segregation, discrimination and other social ills. (In the 1950s, several states tried unsuccessfully to resist desegregation by nullifying federal laws. The courts have consistently rejected nullification as unconstitutional.) The group鈥檚 site, in another indication of its politics, rails against centrist Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a 鈥渄edicated Socialist.鈥�

For a time, Boldin crisscrossed the country, taking the TAC鈥檚 nullification message to supporters known as 鈥淭enthers.鈥� Its 鈥淣ullify Now!鈥� conferences were held between 2010 and 2013 in cities including Austin, Texas, Jacksonville and Orlando, Fla., and Manchester, N.H.

These conferences were often headlined by prominent figures in the antigovernment 鈥淧atriot鈥� movement, which years grew dramatically after the election of Barack Obama in 2008. The Austin gathering, for instance, featured Art Thompson of the John Birch Society, which once argued that President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a communist agent, and Stewart Rhodes, head of the conspiracy-minded Oath Keepers, a group that encourages police officers and soldiers to disobey 鈥渦nconstitutional鈥� orders. Kevin Gutzman, a professor of history at Western Connecticut State University and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution, also spoke.

Thomas E. Woods, a former member of the neo-Confederate hate group League of the South and the author of Nullification: How to Resist Tyranny in the 21st Century, was another constant on the 鈥淣ullify Now!鈥� tour.

The TAC鈥檚 partner in this endeavor was the Foundation for a Free Society, which espouses the libertarian free-market theories of Murray Rothbard and the Austrian school of economics. Foundation leader Jason Rink has described the federal government as the primary threat to liberty.

In June 2012, Boldin called the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 decision to uphold President Obama鈥檚 health care law 鈥渁n assumption of undelegated powers鈥� showing that 鈥渆vil is advancing.鈥� He urged 鈥淭enthers鈥� to lobby their state legislatures to nullify it.

Following the lukewarm reception of the 鈥淣ullify Now鈥� tour, Boldin turned to crowd-funding in 2015 to pay for his 鈥淭each 150,000 People to Nullify鈥� campaign. This campaign was established to 鈥済et out of our echo chamber and aggressively teach new people about nullification as the solution to our problems.鈥� Boldin created an online video series that is easily shared and digested by those who might not otherwise understand Boldin鈥檚 unique interpretation of the 10^thAmendment. The fundraising effort continued in 2016 with plans for another series of videos on 鈥渢he Constitution, nullification and liberty.鈥�