Considering The Tenth Amendment
By Bob Small
What does the Tenth Amendment mean?
Constitutional Scholars, of which I am not one, can have discussions about various aspects of the Constitution including the Tenth Amendment. To Quote “The powers 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.”
This led Michael Boldin to start theTenth Amendment Center as we learned about while at The Bill of Rights Banquet. TAC (Tenth Amendment Center) lists various articles but one of the most important,
in our eyes, is the nullification article.
The principles of nullification were first formalized by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison “in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798. “This actually was a pre-revolutionary idea;
Congress used nullification as a way to force the UK Parliament to repeal the Stamp Act.
There is further discussion under the Nullification section.
See also A Founding Father in Dissent.
Most recently Maryland Defend the Guard Act Would Set Foundation to …
There is a movement to prevent “the governor from releasing any unit or member into ”active duty combat” unless an official “act of war” was declared.
See their Blog for other examples.
Now it wouldn’t be fair if we didn’t delve into some critics of Michael Boldin and the Tenth Amendment Center. But these critics need their own facts checked.
Media Bias/Fact Check says the the TAC has a “use of strong appeals in wording” to which we’d reply ” well yeah isn’t that what writers do”.
The SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) has an article on Michael Boldin. “Michael Boldin is an ideologue who has spent years promoting the idea that states can “nullify” federal legislation they don’t like — the very same argument pushed by defenders of slavery and segregation, and just as baseless now as it was then,” they say.
However, we also have Abortion Rights Ballot Measures Pass in Seven States – which we haven’t found the SPLC railing against.
Let’s leave us with this question; When is states’ rights rights right and when is states’ rights wrong?
