This week marks the final installment of my updates on the Constitution’s Bill of Rights. It is my hope that you have enjoyed learning a little bit more about each of these amendments just as much as I have enjoyed researching and writing about them.
I previously wrote about how the Ninth Amendment is unlike the first eight amendments in the Bill of Rights, as it is does not explicitly enumerate individual rights. Instead, it provides that those rights listed in the Constitution are not to be thought of as an exhaustive list of individual rights. That is why certain fundamental rights exist even though they are not listed in the Constitution or its amendments.
The Tenth Amendment, likewise, provides that the federal government’s powers not enumerated in the text of the Constitution are retained by the states or by the people.
The Tenth Amendment reads:
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.
As we saw in the discussions and debates surrounding whether to include a Bill of Rights, there was a similar debate on the eventual Tenth Amendment. Many Framers viewed the Constitution as a charter that limited Congress and the other branches to clear, enumerated powers. This is how the Constitution secures liberty: by enumerating powers that the government has and the rest are to the states or the people.
Unlike the Ninth Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court has addressed the Tenth Amendment multiple times. In 1941, the Supreme Court decided the landmark case, United States v. Darby, interpreting the Tenth Amendment. The Court said that an exercise of federal power violated the Constitution not by whether it violated someone’s rights but rather that the act exceeded one of the enumerated powers in the Constitution.
One of the Tenth Amendment’s underlying principles is that the federal government cannot force states to participate in federal programs. The Supreme Court has referred to this as “commandeering.” In 1997, through the Printz v. United States decision, the Court struck down part of the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act on commandeering grounds. The Justices made this ruling because the Act required (commandeered) the chief law enforcement officer in each local jurisdiction to conduct background checks related to the sale or transfer of firearms.
In another case the Supreme Court has allowed Congress to condition a state’s acceptance of federal money upon compliance with federal programs or conditions. In 1987, through the South Dakota v. Dole decision, the Court held that Congress can indirectly encourage uniformity in states’ drinking ages by passing legislation that conditions the award of federal highway money to states that raise the minimum drinking age. The Court wrote that a threatened 5% loss of highway funds was not unduly coercive on the states and was, therefore, constitutional.
As it was noted by the Court in Darby, the Tenth Amendment is “but a truism.” It is a reminder about the importance and genius of the Constitution’s principles of federalism. Federalism is the relationship between the states and federal government. By affirming through the Tenth Amendment that federal power exists only in those enumerated powers in the Constitution and that states and the people hold the remaining power, the federal government can be held in check from growing in both size and shape.
Once again, I hope you have enjoyed these Bill of Rights updates. Understanding our nation’s founding documents, how they came to be, and how they affect us today is so vital to our system of government! The more we know, the more good we can do!
I enjoy hearing from you about our Constitution and the rights it affords us. You need to know your rights to use them. There is no other country that has such a strong constitution.
But it is up to each generation to know the Constitution and uphold it or we will go the route of totalitarianism/communism/socialism where a central government dictates every part of your life. Only you can prevent the loss of our individual rights by ignoring that duty and not voting in representatives who will preserve and protect our Constitution.
You can call me at 651-296-5655 or send me an email at sen.mary.kiffmeyer@senate.mn. Please also take time to talk with others about our timeless and incredibly valuable Constitution that is available to you and in use every day of your life.
Sincerely,
Mary