States' rights refers to the idea, in U.S. politics and constitutional law, that U.S. states possess certain rights and political powers in relation to the federal government. Politics of the United States takes place in the framework of a presidential, Federal republic where the President of the United States (the Head of United States Constitutional Law is the body of law governing the interpretation and implementation of the United States Constitution. A US state is any one of the fifty subnational entities of the United States of America that share Sovereignty with the federal government A right is a legal or moral Entitlement or Permission. Rights are of vital importance in theories of Justice and deontological ethics Political power ( Imperium in Latin is a type of power held by a group in a Society which allows administration of some or all of The federal government of the United States is the central United States Governmental body established by the United States Constitution. A commonly cited source for states' rights is the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights. The Tenth Amendment ( Amendment X) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, In the United States the Bill of Rights is the name by which the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known The states' rights concept is usually used to defend a state law that the federal government seeks to override, or to oppose a perceived violation by the federal government of the bounds of federal authority.

Contents 1 Terminology 2 Principle 3 Controversy to 1865 3.1 Nullification 3.2 Civil War 4 Since 1865 5 Civil Rights Movement 6 Contemporary debates 7 States' rights as "code word" 8 States' rights and the Rehnquist Court 9 See also 10 External links 11 Notes 12 References 12.1 Secondary sources 12.2 Further reading

Terminology

The phrase states' rights (and all variants of the words and the phrase) does not appear in the U. S. Constitution or its amendments -- rather the word rights is mostly associated within the Constitution with the phrase the people, while the word powers is mostly associated with government entities such as Congress or states. A right is a legal or moral Entitlement or Permission. Rights are of vital importance in theories of Justice and deontological ethics Therefore, the phrase states' powers is more technically consistent with the terminology of the authors of the U. S. Constitution, with the phrase States' rights popularized by repeated usage.

Principle

The principle of the supremacy of federal powers over those powers held by the states is based on the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution and was explained in the early 1800s by John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supremacy Clause is the common name given to Article VI Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, which readsThis Constitution and the Laws of the United The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme Law of the United States. John Marshall (September 24 1755 – July 6 1835 was an American statesman and jurist who shaped American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a center of power The Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the judicial branch of the government of the United States, and presides over the U The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. In the seminal case of McCulloch v. Maryland, Marshall asserted that the laws adopted by the federal government, when exercising its Constitutional powers, are generally paramount over any conflicting laws adopted by state governments. McCulloch v Maryland,, was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. After McCulloch, the primary legal issues in this area concerned the scope of the powers Congress possesses under the Constitution, and whether the states possess certain powers to the exclusion of the federal government even if the Constitution does not explicitly limit them to the States.

Controversy to 1865

In the period between the American Revolution and the establishment of the United States Constitution, the states had coalesced under a much weaker federal government, pursuant to the Articles of Confederation, which gave the federal government very little, if any, authority to overrule individual states. The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme Law of the United States. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, also the Articles of Confederation was the governing Constitution of the alliance of thirteen independent and The Constitution strengthened the federal government, authorizing it to exercise powers deemed necessary to rule over the nation as a whole, with a vague boundary between the two co-existing "levels" of government. In the event a state's law should overlap federal law, the Constitution resolved the conflict in the Supremacy Clause in Article VI in favor of the federal government, which declares federal law the "supreme Law of the Land" and provides that "the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. " The Supremacy Clause applies, however, only if the federal government is acting within its Constitutionally authorized powers.

When the Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison secretly wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which provide a classic statement in support of states' rights. The Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills passed in 1798 by the Federalists in the United States Congress —who were waging an undeclared naval war with France Thomas Jefferson (April 13 1743 – July 4 1826 was the third President of the United States (1801–1809 the principal author of the Declaration of Independence James Madison Jr (March 16 1751 – June 28 1836 was an American Politician, the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817 and one of the Founding The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (or Resolves) were important political statements in favor of States' rights written secretly by Vice President Thomas According to this theory, the Federal Union is a voluntary association of states and if the central government goes too far, each state has the right to nullify that law. As Jefferson said in the Kentucky Resolutions:

Resolved, that the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that by compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force: That to this compact each State acceded as a State, and is an integral party, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other party. . . . each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress.

The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, along with the supporting Report of 1800 by Madison, became bedrock documents of Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party. The Report of 1800 was a resolution drafted by James Madison arguing for the Sovereignty of the individual states under the Those supporters, such as John Randolph, who insisted loudest on states' rights, were called "Old Republicans" into the 1820s and 1830s. John Randolph is a personal name that may refer to John Randolph 3rd Earl of Moray (died 1346 3rd Earl of Moray regent of Scotland

Another states' rights dispute occurred over the War of 1812. The War of 1812 was fought between the United States of America and the British Empire, particularly Great Britain and her North American colonies At the Hartford Convention, New England states voiced opposition to President James Madison and the war, and discussed secession from the Union. The Hartford Convention was an event in 1814-1815 in the United States during the War of 1812 in which New England 's opposition to the war reached History See also History of New England New England's earliest inhabitants were Algonquian -speaking Native Americans including the James Madison Jr (March 16 1751 – June 28 1836 was an American Politician, the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817 and one of the Founding Secession (derived from the Latin term secessio is the act of withdrawing from an organization union or especially a political entity

Nullification

One major and continuous strain on the union, from roughly 1820 through the Civil War, was the issue of trade and tariffs. For other uses of this word see Tariff (disambiguation. A tariff is a tax imposed on goods when they are moved across a political boundary Heavily dependent upon trade, the almost entirely agricultural and export-oriented South imported most of its manufactured needs from Europe or obtained them from the North. Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture In Economics, an export is any good or Commodity, Transported from one country to another country in a Legitimate fashion The North, by contrast, had a growing domestic industrial economy that viewed foreign trade as competition. Trade barriers, especially protective tariffs, were viewed as harmful to the Southern economy, which depended on exports.

In 1828, the Congress passed protective tariffs to benefit trade in the northern states, but were detrimental to the South. The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses Southerners vocally expressed their tariff opposition in documents such as the South Carolina Exposition and Protest in 1828, written in response to the "Tariff of Abominations". The South Carolina Exposition and Protest, also known as Calhoun's Exposition, was written in 1828 by John C The Tariff of 1828, also known as the Tariff of Abominations, enacted on May 19 1828 (ch Exposition and Protest was the work of South Carolina senator John C. Calhoun, formerly an advocate of protective tariffs and internal improvements at federal expense. South Carolina ( is a state in the southern region ( Deep South) of the United States of America. The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives John Caldwell Calhoun (March 18 1782 &ndash March 31 1850 was a leading United States Southern politician and political philosopher from South Carolina during For other uses of this word see Tariff (disambiguation. A tariff is a tax imposed on goods when they are moved across a political boundary

South Carolina's Nullification Ordinance declared the tariff of 1828 and 1832 null and void within the state borders of South Carolina. South Carolina ( is a state in the southern region ( Deep South) of the United States of America. The Ordinance of Nullification declared the Tariff of 1828 and 1832 null and void within the state borders of South Carolina. The Tariff of 1828, also known as the Tariff of Abominations, enacted on May 19 1828 (ch The Tariff of 1832 was a protectionist tariff in the United States. It began the Nullification Crisis. The Nullification Crisis was a sectional crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson created by the Ordinance of Nullification, an attempt by the Passed by a state convention on November 24, 1832, it led, on December 10, to President Andrew Jackson's proclamation against South Carolina, which sent a naval flotilla and a threat of sending government ground troops to enforce the tariffs. Events 380 - Theodosius I makes his adventus, or formal Year 1832 ( MDCCCXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Events 1041 - Empress Zoe of Byzantium elevates her adoptive son to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V Andrew Jackson (March 15 1767 June 8 1845 was the seventh President of the United States (1829&ndash1837

Civil War

Over the following decades, another dispute over states' rights moved to the forefront. The issue of slavery polarized the union, with the principles espoused by Thomas Jefferson often being cited by both anti-slavery Northerners and secessionists on the debates that ultimately led to the American Civil War. As a social-economic system slavery is a legal institution under which a Person (called "a slave" is compelled to work for another Thomas Jefferson (April 13 1743 – July 4 1826 was the third President of the United States (1801–1809 the principal author of the Declaration of Independence Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South Supporters of slavery often argued that one of the rights of the states was the protection of slave property wherever it went, a position endorsed by the Supreme Court in the 1857 Dred Scott decision. Dred Scott v Sandford —whether or not they were slaves—could never be Citizens of the United States, and that the United States Congress In contrast, opponents of slavery argued that the non-slave-states' rights were violated both by that decision and by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. The fugitive slave laws were laws passed by the United States Congress in 1793 and 1850 to provide for the return of slaves who escaped from one state

Jefferson Davis used the following argument in favor of the equal rights of states, as opposed to the declaration that all men are created equal:

“

Resolved, That the union of these States rests on the equality of rights and privileges among its members, and that it is especially the duty of the Senate, which represents the States in their sovereign capacity, to resist all attempts to discriminate either in relation to person or property, so as, in the Territories -- which are the common possession of the United States -- to give advantages to the citizens of one State which are not equally secured to those of every other State. Jefferson Finis Davis ( June 3, 1808 &ndash December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as President of the [1]

”

The Preamble to the Confederate States Constitution begins: "We, the people of the Confederate States, each State acting in its sovereign and independent character. The Constitution of the Confederate States of America was the supreme Law of the Confederate States of America, as adopted on March 11, 1861 . . "

Since 1865

With United States v. Cruikshank (1876), a case that arose out of the Colfax Massacre, the Fourteenth Amendment, First Amendment and Second Amendment were held by the Supreme Court of the United States to apply only to state actions, not private acts of violence. United States v Cruikshank, 92 US 542 ( 1875) was an important United States Supreme Court decision in United States Constitutional The Colfax Massacre or Colfax Riot (as the events are termed on the official state historic marker occurred on April 13, 1873, in Colfax Louisiana The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary.

United States v. Harris (1883) held that the Equal Protection Clause did not apply to an 1883 prison lynching since the Fourteenth Amendment applied only to states, not to individual criminal matters. United States v Harris, 106 US 629 ( 1883) sometimes referred to as the Ku Klux Case, was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United

The Civil Rights Cases (1883) allowed segregation by striking down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, a statute that prohibited racial discrimination in public accommodations. The Civil Rights Cases, 109 US 3 ( 1883) were a group of five similar cases consolidated into one issue for the United States Supreme Court The Civil Rights Act of 1875 ( was United States federal law proposed by Republican Senator Charles Sumner and Republican Congressman Benjamin F There, the Supreme Court held that the Equal Protection Clause applied only to acts done by states, not to those done by private individuals; because the Civil Rights Act of 1875 applied to private establishments, the Court said, it exceeded congressional power under section five of the Fourteenth Amendment. A Congressional power of enforcement is included in a number of amendments to the United States Constitution.

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) held that the separate but equal doctrine complied with the Equal Protection Clause, and marked the beginning of Jim Crow laws by legalizing de jure segregation. The Equal Protection Clause, part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides that "no state shall… deny to any person The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted primarily but not exclusively in the Southern and border states of the United States between 1876 and 1965 The Fourteenth Amendment and Fifteenth Amendment would be largely inactive until the American Civil Rights Movement. The Fourteenth Amendment ( Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution is one of the post- Civil War Reconstruction Amendments, first The Fifteenth Amendment ( Amendment XV) of the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States to prevent a citizen from voting based on that The American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968 refers to the reform movements in the United States aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Some modern courts up to and including the U. S. Supreme Court still interpret the Civil Rights Cases as limiting the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Civil War itself and its Constitutional amendments revolved around whether America would become an indestructible union or a collection of states under a Federal Government. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South By the beginning of the 20th century, greater cooperation began to grow between the State and Federal Governments, and soon the Federal Government began to gain more power. It was early in this development that the National Income Tax was implemented, first during the Civil War and then permanently with the Sixteenth Amendment in 1913. Causes of the war See also Origins of the American Civil War, Timeline of events leading to the American Civil War The coexistence of a slave-owning South The Before this, the State had been the highest form of government to which people had to pay taxes, but now another level was added, creating a sense of higher authority for the Federal Government. Soon following this implementation was the Great Depression, the New Deal and then World War II, during which time the Federal Government continued to take on more authority and responsibility. The New Deal was the name that United States President Franklin D World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The case of Wickard v. Filburn allowed the Federal Government to even regulate how much food a person could grow on their own land, arguing this affected interstate commerce and so came under the jurisdiction of the commerce clause. Wickard v Filburn, 317 US 111 (1942 is a United States Supreme Court decision interpreting the Commerce Clause of the United States Article 1 Section 8 Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, known as the Commerce Clause, states that Congress has the power to regulate commerce with foreign

After World War II, President Harry Truman supported a civil rights bill and desegregated the army. The reaction was a split in the Democratic Party that led to the formation of the "States' Rights Party", better known as the Dixiecrats, led by Strom Thurmond. The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. The States' Rights Democratic Party (commonly known as the Dixiecrats) was a segregationist, socially conservative Political party James Strom Thurmond ( December 5, 1902 – June 26, 2003) was an American politician who served as governor of South Carolina and Thurmond ran as the States' Rights candidate for President in 1948, losing to Truman.

Civil Rights Movement

During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, the longstanding use of states' rights to maintain Southern racial politics was highlighted with proponents of racial segregation and Jim Crow laws denouncing federal interference in these state-level policies. The American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968 refers to the reform movements in the United States aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted primarily but not exclusively in the Southern and border states of the United States between 1876 and 1965

Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overruled the Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) decision, but the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments were largely inactive in the South until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 USC 21) and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, 347 US 483 (1954 was a Landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, which overturned earlier Origins The bill was introduced by President John F Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11 1963, in which he asked for legislation "giving Background See also [[Disfranchisement after the Civil War]] The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865 after the Civil War, abolished and prohibited Several states passed Interposition Resolutions to declare that the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown usurped state's rights.

There was states' rights opposition to voting rights at Edmund Pettus Bridge, which was part of the Selma to Montgomery marches that resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Edmund Pettus Bridge, named for Edmund Winston Pettus, a Confederate Brigadier general, and eventual U The Selma to Montgomery marches, which included Bloody Sunday, were three marches that marked the Political and emotional peak of the American civil rights Background See also [[Disfranchisement after the Civil War]] The 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865 after the Civil War, abolished and prohibited James Reeb, Jimmie Lee Jackson and Viola Liuzzo are three civil rights workers who were murdered by opponents of civil rights. James Reeb ( January 1 1927 — March 11 1965) was an American white Unitarian Universalist minister from Boston Jimmie Lee Jackson (December 1938 – February 26, 1965) was a young unarmed civil rights protestor who was shot by an Alabama State Trooper in 1965 Viola Fauver Gregg Liuzzo ( April 11, 1925 &ndash March 25, 1965) was a Civil rights activist from the U ^[2]

Contemporary debates

In 1964, the issue of fair housing in California involved the boundary between state laws and federalism. California Proposition 14 overturned the Rumsford Fair Housing Act and allowed discrimination of any type on home sales. California Proposition 14 was an amendment to the constitution of the state of California promoted by segregationists who wanted to nullify the Rumford Martin Luther King and others saw this as a backlash against civil rights. Martin Luther King Jr ( January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, Activist and prominent leader Actor Ronald Reagan gained popularity by supporting Proposition 14, and was later elected governor of California. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. ^[3] The U. S. Supreme Court's Reitman Vs. Mulkey decision overturned Proposition 14 in 1967 in favor of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Another concern is the fact that on more than one occasion, the Federal Government has threatened to withhold highway funds from states that did not pass certain articles of legislation. The Dwight D Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly called the Interstate Highway System (or simply the Interstate System) Any state which lost highway funding for any extended period would face financial impoverishment, infrastructure collapse or both. Although the first such action (the enactment of a national speed limit) was directly related to highways and done in the face of a fuel shortage, most subsequent actions have had little or nothing to do with highways and have not been done in the face of any compelling national crisis. Critics of such actions feel that when the Federal Government does this they upset the traditional balance between the state and Federal governments.

More recently, the issue of states' rights has come to a head when the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) recommended that Congress and the Department of Defense implement sweeping changes to the National Guard by consolidating some Guard installations and closing others. Base Realignment and Closure (or BRAC) is a process of the United States federal government directed at the administration and operation of the Armed The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses The United States Department of Defense ( DOD or DoD) is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government For the National Guard of a State and other countries' National Guard see National Guard. These recommendations in 2005 drew strong criticism from many states, and several states sued the federal government on the basis that Congress and the Pentagon would be violating states' rights should they force the realignment and closure of Guard bases without the prior approval of the governors from the affected states. After Pennsylvania won a federal lawsuit to block the deactivation of the 111th Fighter Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, defense and Congressional leaders chose to try and settle the remaining BRAC lawsuits out of court, reaching compromises with the plaintiff states. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern The Pennsylvania Air National Guard is the component of the United States Air National Guard operating within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A plaintiff ( Π in Legal shorthand) also known as a claimant or complainant, is the party who initiates a Lawsuit ^[4]

Current states' rights issues include the death penalty, assisted suicide, gay marriage, doctor-assisted suicide in Gonzales v. Oregon, and the medical use of marijuana, the last of which is in violation of federal law. Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the Killing of a person by judicial process as Punishment. Assisted suicide is the process by which an individual who may otherwise be incapable is provided with the means (drugs or equipment to commit Suicide. Same-sex marriage (also referred to as gay marriage) is a term for a legally or Socially recognized Marriage between two people of the same Gonzales v Oregon, 546 US 243 ( 2006) was a United States Supreme Court case which ruled that the United States Attorney General Medical cannabis refers to the use of the Cannabis plant as a physician-recommended Herbal therapy as well as synthetic THC and Cannabinoids In Gonzales v. Raich, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the federal government and permitted the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to arrest medical marijuana patients and caregivers. Gonzales v Raich (previously Ashcroft v Raich) 545 US 1 (2005 was a case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled on The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States and leads the federal judiciary. The Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA) is a United States Department of Justice Law enforcement agency tasked with combating drug smuggling and

States' rights as "code word"

The term "states' rights", some have argued, was used as a code word by defenders of segregation, and was the official name of the "Dixiecrat" party led by segregationist presidential candidate Strom Thurmond. This article is specifically about the use of "code words" in politics for the concept generally see Code word (figure of speech Dog-whistle The States' Rights Democratic Party (commonly known as the Dixiecrats) was a segregationist, socially conservative Political party James Strom Thurmond ( December 5, 1902 – June 26, 2003) was an American politician who served as governor of South Carolina and George Wallace, the Alabama governor, who famously declared in his inaugural address, "Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!", later remarked that he should have said, "States' rights now! States' rights tomorrow! States' rights forever!" Wallace, however, claimed that segregation was but one issue symbolic of a larger struggle for states' rights; in that view, which some historians dispute, his replacement of segregation with states' rights would be more of a clarification than a euphemism. George Corley Wallace Jr (August 25 1919 September 13 1998 was a Democratic Governor of Alabama for four terms (1963-1967 1971-1979 and 1983-1987 and ran for Alabama (formally the State of Alabama;) is a State located in the southern region of the United States of America. A euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener or in the case of doublespeak ^[5]

States' rights and the Rehnquist Court

The Supreme Court's Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett (2001)^[6] and Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents (2000)^[7] decisions allowed states to use a rational basis review for discrimination against the aged and disabled, arguing that these types of discrimination were rationally related to a legitimate state interest, and that no "razorlike precision" was needed. Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v Garrett, 531 U Kimel v Florida Board of Regents, 528 US 62 (2000 was a United States Supreme Court case that determined that the Congress's enforcement Rational basis review, in US constitutional law, is the lowest level of scrutiny applied by courts deciding constitutional issues through Judicial review. The Supreme Court's United States v. Morrison (2000)^[8] decision limited the ability of rape victims to sue their attackers in Federal Court. United States v Morrison, is a United States Supreme Court decision that examined the limits of Congress's power to make laws under the Commerce Clause Rehnquist explained that "States historically have been sovereign" in the area of law enforcement, which in the Court's opinion required narrow interpretations of the Commerce Clause and Fourteenth Amendment. William Hubbs Rehnquist (October 1 1924 – September 3 2005 was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure who served as an Associate Justice

Kimel, Garrett and Morrison indicated that the Court's previous decisions in favor of enumerated powers and limits on Congressional power over the states, such as United States v. Lopez (1995), Seminole Tribe v. Florida (1996) and City of Boerne v. Flores (1997) were more than one time flukes. United States v Lopez, was the first United States Supreme Court case since the Great Depression to set limits to Congress's power under the Seminole Tribe of Florida v Florida, 517 US 44 (1996 was a United States Supreme Court case which held that Article One of the U City of Boerne v Flores, 521 US 507 ( 1997) was a Supreme Court case concerning the scope of Congress's enforcement power In the past, Congress relied on the Commerce Clause and the Equal Protection Clause for passing civil rights bills, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Article 1 Section 8 Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, known as the Commerce Clause, states that Congress has the power to regulate commerce with foreign The Equal Protection Clause, part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides that "no state shall… deny to any person Origins The bill was introduced by President John F Kennedy in his civil rights speech of June 11 1963, in which he asked for legislation "giving

Lopez limited the Commerce Clause to things that directly affect interstate commerce, which excludes issues like gun control laws, hate crimes and other crimes that affect commerce but are not directly related to commerce. Seminole reinforced the "sovereign immunity of states" doctrine, which makes it difficult to sue states for many things, especially civil rights violations. The Flores "congruence and proportionality" requirement prevents Congress from going too far in requiring states to comply with the Equal Protection Clause, which replaced the ratchet theory advanced in Katzenbach v. Morgan (1966). Katzenbach v Morgan, 384 US 641 ( 1966) was a United States Supreme Court case regarding the power of Congress pursuant The ratchet theory held that Congress could ratchet up civil rights beyond what the Court had recognized, but that Congress could not ratchet down judicially recognized rights. An important precedent for Morrison was United States v. Harris (1883), which ruled that the Equal Protection Clause did not apply to a prison lynching because the state action doctrine applies Equal Protection only to state action, not private criminal acts. United States v Harris, 106 US 629 ( 1883) sometimes referred to as the Ku Klux Case, was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United Since the ratchet principle was replaced with the "congruence and proportionality" principle by Flores, it was easier to revive older precedents for preventing Congress from going beyond what Court interpretations would allow. Critics such as Supreme Court Justice Stevens accused the Court of judicial activism (interpreting law to reach a desired conclusion). Judicial activism is a pejorative term for the misuse of judicial power and is a neologism for the older classical term " board judicial review.

The tide against federal power in the Rehnquist court was stopped in the case Bush v. Gore and Gonzales v. Raich, in which the court upheld the federal power to prohibit medical use of cannabis even if states have permitted it. Gonzales v Raich (previously Ashcroft v Raich) 545 US 1 (2005 was a case in which the United States Supreme Court ruled on Cannabis ( Cán-na-bis) is a Genus of Flowering plants that includes three putative species Cannabis sativa subsp Rehnquist himself was a dissenter in the Raich case.

See also

• Origins of the American Civil War
• Federalism
• Compact theory

External links

• Tenth Amendment Center Federalism and States Rights in the U. The main explanation for the origins of the American Civil War was slavery, especially the issue of the expansion of slavery into the territories. Political federalism is a Political philosophy in which a group of members are bound together (Latin foedus, covenant) with a governing The compact theory is a theory relating to the development of the Constitution of the United States of America, claiming that the formation of the nation was S.
• A copy of transcript of Florida's 1957 Interposition Resolution, made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida

Notes

References

Secondary sources

• Ann Althouse. "Why Talking about "States' Rights" Cannot Avoid the Need for Normative Federalism Analysis" Duke Law Journal, Vol. 51, 2001
• Lynn A. Baker & Ernest A. Young, "Federalism and the Double Standard of Judicial Review" , 51 Duke Law Journal (2001), which argues at 143-49 : "To many, [the notion of states' rights] stands for an anachronistic (and immoral) preference for the race-based denial of essential individual rights. . . . ".
• Daniel A. Farber. "States' Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio, 1776-1876" Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 18, 2001
• Russell Kirk, Randolph of Roanoke: A Study in Conservative Thought (1951)
• Forrest McDonald. States' Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio, 1776-1876 (2002)
• Norman K. Risjord, The Old Republicans: Southern Conservatism in the Age of Jefferson (1965]
• Manisha Sinha; "Revolution or Counterrevolution?: The Political Ideology of Secession in Antebellum South Carolina" Civil War History, Vol. 46, 2000 in JSTOR

Further reading

• Frederick D. Drake, ed. States' Rights and American Federalism: A Documentary History (1999)

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic