By Dr. Troy Kickler

As I learned when recently delivering a lecture, the 10th Amendment is getting a lot of attention. Tenthers — those believing the federal government’s authority should be strictly limited to the enumerated powers in the Constitution — are passionate. Their opponents are equally passionate.

One person asked me if Tenthers’ argument had any constitutional legitimacy. My answer was, well, yes. Continue Reading

Continue Reading

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Add to iTunes

by Michael Boldin

The following was a prepared statement for the 10th Amendment Forum in Orlando, FL on 08-22-09

First of all, thank you for allowing me a few moments to be here with you today – it’s an honor to be able to speak with you, even if it’s from the other side of the country where I am here in Los Angeles, California.

As the founder of the Tenth Amendment Center, I’m often asked – why the Tenth Amendment?  Why do we need it?  And I truly believe that’s just what people like you and I were asking back in the time when this country was founded, too.

But, the answer isn’t complex.  It isn’t difficult.  It’s simple and it’s easy to understand. The People of the day, the Founding Generation, like so many of us today, recognized that a government of strictly limited powers is the only one that has a chance of protecting our liberty – and that’s just the kind of government that the People created when they ratified the Constitution so many years ago. Continue Reading

by Bryce Shonka

A line was drawn in the sand last week - a response by the Federal Government to the State of Tennessee and their assertion of sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution.

(Editor’s note: A similar response was sent to Montana Firearms licenses on 07-16-09 as well)

Part of a series of moves by states seeking to utilize the Tenth Amendment as a limit on Federal Power,  the Tennessee State Senate approved Senate Bill 1610 (SB1610), the Tennesse Firearms Freedom Act, by a vote of 22-7.  The House companion bill, HB1796 previously passed the House by a vote of 87-1.

Governor Breseden allowed the bill to become law without signing. Continue Reading

by State Sen. Dennis Kruse, IN-14

If Thomas Jefferson could come back and visit the United States for a day, would he recognize the government his wisdom and wordsmithing helped create?

He would likely be confused, or outraged, by the overreaching power of the federal government. He would bristle at the coercive use of matching funding and unfunded federal mandates to make the states submit to the will of the federal system. Continue Reading

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Add to iTunes

Rob Natelson, recognized national expert on the framing and adoption of the United States Constitution, and Professor of Constitutional Law, Legal History, and Advanced Constitutional Law at the University of Montana School of Law, discusses the origins and nature of federalism, the benefits of a federal government, the role of the 9th and 10th Amendment, the Necessary and Proper Clause, Enumerated Powers, Rules of Construction, States Rights vs People’s Rights, and the Compact Theory of Government.

More from Rob Natelson:

It’s the People’s Right!

The Ninth Amendment, The Tenth’s Partner

The Enumerated Powers of States

Rob’s Page at the University of Montana

by Brinn Clayton

I propose the United States of America change its name to the Federalized States of America, or better yet the Coerced States of America. We should either make this change or return to a literal reading of the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Continue Reading

After being nearly derailed on a technicality earlier this month, Texas House Concurrent Resolution 50 (HCR50) was brought back for a vote today, and passed by a wide margin.

The resolution affirms that “the State of Texas claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the U.S. Constitution, serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates, and providing that certain federal legislation be prohibited or repealed.”

The final vote was 99-36. (click here to see the tally)

Here’s the full text of the resolution: Continue Reading

On Tuesday, 05-26-09, Massachusetts State Representative Jeffrey Davis Perry (R-Sandwich) filed a Resolution before the House of Representatives to protect the Founding Fathers’ intent and the Constitutional protections of the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which 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 purpose of this Resolution is to clearly affirm to Congress and the President our  State’s sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution and to demand that the federal government halt the practice of assuming powers and imposing mandates upon the states for purposes which are not enumerated by the Constitution of the United States of America” said Representative Perry from the State House.

As cited by the Tenth Amendment Center, “James Madison, during the Constitutional ratification process, drafted the “Virginia Plan” to give Congress general legislative authority and to empower the national judiciary to hear any case that might cause friction among the states, to give the congress a veto over state laws, to empower the national government to use the military against the states, and to eliminate the states’ accustomed role in selecting members of Congress.  Each one of these proposals was soundly defeated.  In fact, Madison made many more attempts to authorize a national veto over state laws, and these were repeatedly defeated as well…

The Tenth Amendment defines the total scope of federal power as being that which has been delegated by the people to the federal government, and also that which is absolutely necessary to advancing those powers specifically enumerated in the Constitution of the United States.  The rest is to be handled by the state governments, or locally, by the people themselves.

The Constitution does not include a congressional power to override state laws.  It does not give the judicial branch unlimited jurisdiction over all matters.  It does not provide Congress with the power to legislate over everything. This is verified by the simple fact that attempts to make these principles part of the Constitution were soundly rejected by its signers.”

The language of the Resolution is as follows: Continue Reading