Tenth Amendment Center

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

Those few words, from the Declaration of Independence, are as close as one might find to be the sum total of the principle of liberty.  go on reading »

The 10th Amendment to the US Constitution embodies much of what the founders envisioned for this country - a federal government strictly limited to only specific activities, with the rest being handled on state or local levels.

Some may call this states’ rights, others refer to it as decentralization or federalism.  Whatever you call it, it’s a system of government where politicians in Washington D.C. wouldn’t have the power to dictate to you how to live your life.

Period. go on reading »

by Rep Ron Paul

One reason people are unhappy with the way politics and governments operate is that people who run for office are known to “say one thing and do another.”  Thus, we have the call for “change.”

Candidates for high office make frequent use of that word.  Even our House Republican Conference’s recently released slogan highlights that word.

Yet, bringing about change is easier said than done.  The American people are aware that government is broken and must be fixed.  They will demand more than lip service as our problems become more severe. go on reading »

by Steve Kubby

“States’ Rights” is an Anti-Libertarian Concept

The concept of federalism is properly used to describe a system of government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between the federal government and the states.

In contrast, the term “states’ rights” is a fraudulent and profoundly ANTI-Libertarian concept that has no other purpose but to deceive and rob us of our natural, inalienable, inseparable, non-transferable rights as human beings. go on reading »

by Paul Craig Roberts

What use is the political left? This is a serious question, not a rant. The same question can be asked about the political right. The question does not imply derogatory implications about individuals on the political left or the political right. Rather, the question concerns the basket of emotions, issues, and knee-jerk responses associated with the political left and the political right.

Traditionally, the political left has had a Benthamite view of government, seeing government power as the tool for improving society whether through revolution or reform. Paradoxically, the political left has believed in Big Government despite the political left’s emphasis on civil liberty. The political left sees government power not as a threat to civil liberty but as a tool for enforcing civil liberty; for example, through Brown vs. Board of Education and coerced integration in the southern states. go on reading »

by Rep Ron Paul

The most basic principle to being a free American is the notion that we as individuals are responsible for our own lives and decisions.  We do not have the right to rob our neighbors to make up for our mistakes, neither does our neighbor have any right to tell us how to live, so long as we aren’t infringing on their rights.

Freedom to make bad decisions is inherent in the freedom to make good ones.  If we are only free to make good decisions, we are not really free. go on reading »

Gay Marriage, Medical Marijuana, the Environment and more.

For many years, presidents have been assuming more and more power for themselves and for the federal government, but California has been taking the lead recently in the battle for States Rights against this growth Federal power.

Thomas Elias notes this trend in his recent Pasadena Star-News article, “California a key states’ rights battleground.”  go on reading »

Following the rules.

We’re all asked (well…told, actually) that we need to do this each and every day.

The federal government tells us what to do more often that we even pay attention to.  We’re told that we need to give them money, we need to submit to patdowns at airports, we need to allow them to read our emails, and on and on and on.

Remember, we’re not asked.  We’re not asked if we want them to do these things and we’re not asked to comply.  We’re told.  And if we don’t comply, they’ll start pulling out the guns pretty quickly.

But doesn’t this make us second-class citizens? go on reading »

Back in ‘99, even George Bush himself was calling for an end to the war on medical marijuana users. It’s not something that’s pointed out too often these days, and thanks to Anthony Gregory at LewRockwell.com, we can all read these statements from Bush himself. go on reading »

As all major politicians move more and more towards centralization as the solution to virtually every problem in this country, there’s no greater need to start looking back to America’s founding principles of state sovereignty, argues Clay Barham at PopulistAmerica.com go on reading »