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NSA Headquarters Ft. Meade, Md.
It's lights out for the National Security Agency (NSA). State lawmakers in Maryland have filed emergency status legislation that seeks to cut the NSA's Ft. Meade headquarters off from all material support stemming from the state.

"Maryland has almost become a political subdivision of the NSA," Tenth Amendment Center Executive Director Michael Boldin said in a statement. "The agency relies heavily on state and local help. This bill bans all of it."

House Bill 1074 (HB1074) would ban the NSA facility from all public state utilities, ban the use of NSA collected evidence in court, ban universities from partnering with the NSA and ban all political subdivisions from assisting the NSA from within the state.

Any state entity, employee or contractor refusing to comply with the law would be immediately fired and banned from all future contracts within the state.

The bill has eight Republican sponsors and has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

Multiple states join Maryland in their attempt to enforce anti-commandeering legislative measures against the NSA. Tennessee, Arizona, California and Washington have all filed legislation. Utah is expected to file legislation within the coming weeks.

So far, the Maryland and Tennessee (sponsored by Sen. Campfield and Rep. Holt) legislation would have the biggest impact on the NSA. Both states have actual facilities. Meanwhile, other states are passing the legislation as a prophylactic measure.

The wave of legislative measures is being conducted by the Tenth Amendment Center, which along with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee launched the OffNow coalition last year.