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What does states right mean?

Updated: 12/15/2022
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10y ago

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It's the idea that most governing power should be held by the American states, not the federal government.

The basic idea is that states know best what their people want and need, so they should be the ones to give them those things. Additionally, the Constitution lays out certain tasks that the federal government is supposed to do; many states rights advocates believe that the federal government should do only exactly those things, and nothing more. I will not argue the validity of these concepts here; I'll leave that to the reader to decide.

At the extreme, it can go even further, to that states have the right to "nullification"- if a state thinks a law is unconstitutional, then that state can nullify, or cancel, that law. Courts have consistently found "nullification" illegal- Article Six of the Constitution says that when state laws conflict with Federal Laws, the federal law is considered "supreme"; and Article Three states that only federal courts can declare laws unconstitutional. But that doesn't stop some states from trying anyway!

"States rights" is a favorite term often used by conservatives and Southern apologists. Conservatives see it as a reason to get rid of departments, policies and laws of the federal government that they don't like. Southern apologists claim it's the "real reason" why the South seceded and the Civil War was fought, because they find the truth uncomfortable- the truth being that the South seceded because of slavery, which is borne out by numerous documents (secession articles, the Confederate Constitution, etc) by Southern leaders at the time.

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Eleanore Heidenreich

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1y ago
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9y ago

It's the idea that most governing power should be held by the American states, not the federal government.

The basic idea is that states know best what their people want and need, so they should be the ones to give them those things. Additionally, the Constitution lays out certain tasks that the federal government is supposed to do; many states rights advocates believe that the federal government should do only exactly those things, and nothing more. I will not argue the validity of these concepts here; I'll leave that to the reader to decide.

At the extreme, it can go even further, to that states have the right to "nullification"- if a state thinks a law is unconstitutional, then that state can nullify, or cancel, that law. Courts have consistently found "nullification" illegal- Article Six of the Constitution says that when state laws conflict with Federal Laws, the federal law is considered "supreme"; and Article Three states that only federal courts can declare laws unconstitutional. But that doesn't stop some states from trying anyway!

"States rights" is a favorite term often used by conservatives and Southern apologists. Conservatives see it as a reason to get rid of departments, policies and laws of the federal government that they don't like. Southern apologists claim it's the "real reason" why the South seceded and the Civil War was fought, because they find the truth uncomfortable- the truth being that the South seceded because of slavery, which is borne out by numerous documents (secession articles, the Confederate Constitution, etc) by Southern leaders at the time.

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