“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.”
The Constitution is many things, but at its most basic level it is a document conveying enumerated powers from a principal (“We the People”) to identified agents. Like most other Founding-era enumerated power documents, the Constitution’s expressly-listed powers...
Patrick Henry’s impassioned remarks during the final days of the Virginia Ratifying Convention were the culmination of week-long arguments between skeptics of the proposed Constitution and its supporters, such as James Madison. In modern context, it is easy at first...
