Has the Tenth Amendment in the Bill of Rights ever been challenged?

Answer 1

An Amendment can't be challenged as unconstitutional; only statutes, policies, executive orders and treaties can be challenged.

The Tenth Amendment has been invoked on rare occasions, however. The Supreme Court held in United States v. Sprague,(1931) that "The Tenth Amendment added nothing to the Constitution as originally ratified, and lends no support to the contention that the people did not delegate this power to Congress in matters affecting their own personal liberty."

The Tenth Amendment has been previously held non-justiciable, but that hasn't stopped litigants from citing the vague wording to support arguments favoring State sovereignty over federal authority. Tenth Amendment proponents believe the Constitution only grants the national government authority that is explicitly enumerated in the Constitution, and believe "implied powers" are unconstitutional.

In the 2010 Term, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the case United States v. Bond, 09-1227, in which the respondent argued the Federal government had exceeded its authority by charging her in federal court with a crime under 18 U.S.C. § 229(a), a law "enacted by Congress to implement the United States' treaty obligations under an international arms-control agreement that prohibits nation-states from producing, stockpiling, or using chemical weapons..." after she attempted to poison her husband's pregnant lover. Bond believed the case should have been tried in the State courts and challenged the United States' authority to remove her case to federal court. The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision before the end of June 2011.

The health care legislation often referred to as "Obamacare" (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010) is also expected to face a Tenth Amendment challenge.

Amendment X

"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."