Global InformationTenth Amendment to the United States Constitution information
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The Tenth Amendment (Amendment X) to the United States Constitution, a part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791.[1] It expresses the principle of federalism, also known as states' rights, by stating that the federal government has only those powers delegated to it by the Constitution, and that all other powers not forbidden to the states by the Constitution are reserved to each state, or to the people.
The amendment, with origins before the American Revolution, was proposed by the 1st United States Congress in 1789 during its first term following the adoption of the Constitution. It was considered by many members as a prerequisite before they would ratify the Constitution,[2] and particularly to satisfy demands of Anti-Federalists, who opposed the creation of a stronger federal government.
The purpose of this amendment is to reaffirm the principles of federalism and reinforce the notion of the Federal Government maintaining only limited, enumerated powers.[3][4] Legal scholars (including textualists and originalists) have effectively classified the amendment as a tautology, a statement affirming that the federal government does not have any rights that it does not have.[5]
- ^ "The Bill of Rights: A Transcription". United States National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved September 20, 2010.
- ^ National Archives (October 30, 2015). "Bill of Rights". Retrieved March 7, 2016.
- ^ Cooper, Charles. "Essay on the Tenth Amendment:Reserved Powers of the States". Retrieved September 11, 2014.
- ^ Justice Robert F. Utter (July 18, 2010). "Freedom and Diversity in a Federal System: Perspectives on State Constitutions and the Washington Declaration of Rights". Seattle University Law Review. 7 (3). Digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu: 491. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- ^ McAffee, Thomas B.; Bybee, Jay S.; Bryant, A. Christopher (2006). Powers reserved for the people and the states: a history of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers. p. 177. ISBN 0-313-31372-5. OCLC 69992386.