states' rights
Decentralized governmental authority
States' rights is the principle that individual U.S. states retain powers not explicitly granted to the federal government by the Constitution.
The term carries historical weight: it was invoked to defend slavery before the Civil War and segregation afterward, making it politically charged.
Today it appears in debates over abortion, gun laws, and marijuana legalization: They argued it was a states' rights issue.
Formal withdrawal from union
- civil warDomestic armed conflict
- confederacyAlliance for shared purpose
- antebellumBefore a war's start
- slaveryOwnership of people
reconstruction · emancipation · border states · fire-eaters · lost cause · segregation · interposition · desegregation
Formal cancellation of validity
- interpositionPlacing something between others
- sovereign immunityState's protection from lawsuits
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
- autonomyIndependent decision-making capacity
political identity · legitimacy · self-governance · police powers · popular sovereignty
Governmental abilities kept by states
- enumerated powersAuthorities explicitly granted by constitution
- Articles of ConfederationOriginal American governing charter
- constitutionalismGovernance bound by fundamental laws
- concurrent powersPowers held by multiple governments
supremacy clause · constitutional convention · anti-federalists · federalists
Preference for nearby things
- subsidiarityLocal authority when able
- devolutionTransferring power locally
- home ruleDelegated local autonomy
- grassrootsCommon people as political base
regionalism · municipal authority · school boards · zoning · land use · block grants · revenue sharing
Freedom to terminate pregnancy
- marriage equalitySame legal wedlock for all
- marijuana legalizationPermitting recreational weed use
- immigration enforcementRegulating unauthorized entry
- sanctuary citiesMunicipalities limiting immigration enforcement cooperation
healthcare mandates · environmental regulations · voting laws · education standards · bathroom bills · minimum wage laws · voter ID laws · redistricting
secession
Formal withdrawal from union
- civil warDomestic armed conflict
- confederacyAlliance for shared purpose
- antebellumBefore a war's start
slavery · reconstruction · emancipation · border states · fire-eaters · lost cause · segregation · interposition · desegregation
nullification
Formal cancellation of validity
- interpositionPlacing something between others
- sovereign immunityState's protection from lawsuits
- self-determinationControl over one's fate
autonomy · political identity · legitimacy · self-governance · police powers · popular sovereignty
reserved powers
Governmental abilities kept by states
- enumerated powersAuthorities explicitly granted by constitution
- Articles of ConfederationOriginal American governing charter
- constitutionalismGovernance bound by fundamental laws
concurrent powers · supremacy clause · constitutional convention · anti-federalists · federalists
localism
Preference for nearby things
- subsidiarityLocal authority when able
- devolutionTransferring power locally
- home ruleDelegated local autonomy
grassroots · regionalism · municipal authority · school boards · zoning · land use · block grants · revenue sharing
abortion rights
Freedom to terminate pregnancy
- marriage equalitySame legal wedlock for all
- marijuana legalizationPermitting recreational weed use
- immigration enforcementRegulating unauthorized entry
sanctuary cities · healthcare mandates · environmental regulations · voting laws · education standards · bathroom bills · minimum wage laws · voter ID laws · redistricting · gerrymandering
- Antebellum Americaantebellum era, Compromise of 1850, sectionalism, Fugitive Slave Act, Kansas-Nebraska Act
- Antebellum Politicsmanifest destiny, nullification, secession, sectionalism, popular sovereignty
- Early RepublicGeorge Washington, Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Constitutional Convention
- federalismfederal law, federal district, enumerated powers, federal agency, limited government
- legal rightslegal rights, constitutional rights, fundamental rights, Miranda rights, Bill of Rights
- Secessionsecession, disunion, Confederate States, Confederacy, South Carolina
states' rightscentralized government
Authority held by one body
federalism · national sovereignty · federal jurisdiction · national government · federal power
states' rightscentralism
Central authority doctrine
centralized control · nationalism · big government · consolidation · national standards
states' rightscivil rights movement
Organized effort against discrimination
Reconstruction · New Deal · Great Society · federal intervention · desegregation
right, state, statistics, interstate, statistic, statistical, statistically, intestate, statism