Amendment 10 (Noor Nassar)

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The 10th Amendment is commonly understood to mean that powers not explicitly given to the federal government in the Constitution are given to state governments or the people. Essentially, the federal government’s power is only derived from the Constitution. The amendment does not change the relationship between the powers given to state governments and federal governments, but it emphasizes that state governments may establish and practice their own laws, as long as they do not conflict with the jurisdiction of the federal government. 

In 1787, the original draft of the Constitution did not include a Bill of Rights. This is because federalists strongly believed that the Bill of Rights would imply that the federal government has powers beyond what is explicitly given in the Constitution. They argued that the federal government had limited and strictly enumerated powers and therefore there was no need to clarify individual rights. However, without a Bill of Rights, several states refused to ratify the Constitution because they believed that people’s individual liberties needed to be explicitly protected to ensure the American people couldn’t be taken advantage of by the federal government. The 10th amendment serves the purpose of addressing the Federalists’ concerns by stating that the federal government can only exercise rights explicitly stated in the Constitution. 

The Supreme Court often relied on the tenth amendment to push back against assertions of national power. Additionally, historians argue that the tenth amendment has often been misinterpreted in political and moral contexts. The powers enumerated to state governments in the tenth amendment were abused because state governments justified the enforcement of racial inequality using the tenth amendment. In the Supreme Court case New York v. United States (1992), the Supreme Court stated that the tenth amendment is “essentially a tautology” and “is not derived from its text.” Other historians believe that the tenth amendment serves a similar purpose to any other amendment in the Bill of Rights. The tenth amendment reminds the federal government that federal powers cannot be inferred but have to be instead explicitly stated in the Constitution. 

One significant Supreme Court ruling to the tenth amendment was New York v. United States (1992). The federal government enacted the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Management Act in 1985 which required states to dispose of radioactive waste within their state’s borders. However, disappointed with these efforts, New York State filed suit against the federal government and argued that the federal government does not have the authority t o regulate state radioactive waste management. The decision was 6-3 for New York because the provision that state governments were forced into the service of the federal government was seen to violate the tenth amendment. This case illustrates the tenth amendment’s importance in making the division of powers between federal and state governments far more concrete and distinct. 

The first debated interpretation is far more persuasive because it signifies the usage of the tenth amendment only when it is convenient to the federal or state government’s case. The idea that state legislators can use the tenth amendment to justify pieces of legislation that promote racial inequality is extremely appalling. The Supreme Court arguing that the tenth amendment should be interpreted as a “tautology” allows for drastic misinterpretation of the law. It allows for the federal government to interpret and gain more power than is explicitly stated in the Constitution. 

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