Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guaranteed that the states or the people would keep all powers not given to the national government. The amendment was adopted to reassure people that the national government would not take all power from the states. The amendment was the last of the 10 amendments made to the Constitution as part of the Bill of Rights , which guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms to every citizen.
The amendment states, “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 Bill of Rights.
The U.S. Constitution went into effect on June 21, 1788. Some states had refused to approve the Constitution unless a bill of rights was added. Supporters of the Constitution, known as Federalists , promised to support constitutional amendments that protected individual liberties against possible unjust rule by the national government. Congress proposed the first 10 amendments—the Bill of Rights—in 1789. The states ratified (approved) them in 1791.
Tenth Amendment protections.
The 10th Amendment confirms that the states or the people keep all powers not given to the national government. For example, the states have general authority over such matters as marriage and divorce. The power of the federal government is already limited to whatever power it is given in the Constitution. However, the Constitution also says the federal government can make any laws “necessary and proper” to carry out its specific powers. This rule makes it difficult to determine the exact rights of states.
The Supreme Court of the United States has held that the 10th Amendment prohibits the federal government from “commandeering” state officials and treating them as if they worked for the federal government. However, the 10th Amendment does not prohibit the federal government from regulating activity, such as education and criminal law, which have historically been primarily regulated by states.
History.
After the Constitutional Convention of 1787, some people opposed the new Constitution because it gave too much power to the federal government. They proposed and supported the 10th Amendment. The amendment was based on a provision of the earlier Articles of Confederation and was designed to make it clear that the states had not given up all of their authority when they ratified the Constitution. The Articles of Confederation provided that the states kept all power that was not “expressly delegated”—that is, specifically given—to the federal government. The 10th Amendment does not include the word expressly. Consequently, it is less restrictive of federal power that the Articles of Confederation provision was.
