“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.”
In response to the hated Alien and Sedition Acts, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798, sometimes referred to as the “Principles of ‘98.” But the principles behind them were nothing new – they were part of a...
On this date in 1798, the Sedition Act went into effect. The law sparked fierce resistance and led to formal resolutions supporting nullification and interposition, penned by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, respectively. The Sedition Act was the last of four laws...
Nullification skeptics will often argue that the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 weren’t actually proposing nullification. They base their argument on the fact that John Breckinridge removed specific references to nullification from Jefferson’s draft before...
Today in history, on Nov. 10. 1798, the Kentucky legislature took a bold stand against federal overreach with the passage of resolutions penned by Thomas Jefferson. It’s one thing to claim the Constitution limits the federal government to its specific list of...
I’ve now had time to read and think about John Marshall’s comments on Congress’ power over immigration (or, strictly speaking, the comments in the 1799 report of the minority of the Virginia Legislature, attributed to Marshall), recommended by Kurt...
Resolutions drafted by James Madison and passed by Virginia on Dec. 21 and 24, 1798, answer a timeless question: What do we do when the federal government oversteps its constitutional bounds? All too often, we simply ignore unconstitutional federal overreach. But...