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The Tenth Amendment

By David Hussey - Nashua | Oct 9, 2021

“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.”

The Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The Constitution of 1788 contained few explicit limits on the power the Federal government could implement against the People. For example, the Constitution prohibited laws aimed at a specific individual, or group of individuals, forbid the granting of titles of nobility, and the right to trial by jury in criminal cases. However, the Constitution that emerged from the Constitutional Convention of 1787 did not contain was what most state constitutions did, a bill of rights, and citizens of those states, as well as members of the Constitutional Convention, insisted that the national constitution include one. The 10th Amendment was one of the first twelve introduced and eventually ratified.

The Tenth Amendment was intended to confirm powers not granted to the United States government were reserved to the States or to the People, for the Founders knew that the closer government is to the People, the less corrupt government becomes. The amendment affirms a truism, that all is retained which has not been surrendered. In short, the purpose was no more than to alleviate fears that the new national government might seek to exercise powers it was not granted, and that the states may not be able to exercise their legislative powers as directed by the will of the People.

The 10th Amendment warns against using a list of rights to infer powers in the national government that were not granted. Respectively, to “rights … retained by the people” and “powers … reserved … to the people,” The highlights of the foundational role of the people in the constitutional republic.

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