States' rights

Common card · No. 301728

In American political discourse, states' rights are political powers held by the state governments rather than the federal government according to the United States Constitution, reflecting especially the enumerated powers of Congress and the Tenth Amendment. The enumerated powers that are listed in the Constitution include exclusive federal powers, as well as concurrent powers that are shared with the states, and all of those powers are contrasted with the reserved powers—also called states' rights—that only the states possess. The doctrine of reserved powers was central to the Anti-Federalist critique of the proposed Constitution. They criticized the lack of a bill of rights, articulated the fears of that the new government would be too large and prone to mainintaining a standing army; in spite of the writings being intended for a small audience, these ideas were disseminated in pamphlets, papers, or manuscripts through various channels and found their way into broader American discourse...

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