“S” is for States’ Rights

“S” is for States’ Rights. The doctrine of states’ rights, a recurring theme of South Carolina political thought, is composed of two elements: a belief that the U.S. Constitution is a compact formed by states that retained their sovereign status; and a belief that powers not specifically granted by the Constitution to the national government remain in state hands. The second principle derives from the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which states that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited to it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. During the sectional controversies before the Civil War, John C. Calhoun contended that states as sovereigns could nullify federal laws that exceeded the powers granted to the national government by the Constitution.