What a pity we have allowed their genius to be turned into a nightmare by our amnesia. Part II I often hear people referring to states rights and it makes me furious. As I have stated over and over, states don t have rights. They have powers. Only the people have rights.
Many people make the mistake of calling the Tenth Amendment a states rights provision.
It s really a limitation on federal power. You will note it doesn t say specifically which powers are reserved to the states and which to the people. It just says any and all undelegated powers are denied the federal government. It s that denial of power to the federal government which made that government federal. Until Franklin Roosevelt came along nobody regarded it as a platitude or truism.