what's the term used to describe limiting the federal government to powers specifically listed in the constitution?
So many states feared the expanded powers of the new national government that they insisted on amendments during the Constitution's ratification. The most popular of these proposed amendments, which became the Bill of Rights in 1791, was a protection of state power. The new Tenth Amendment stated: â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.â. The Articles of Confederation, however, limited Congress to those powers âexpresslyâ listed. There were no implied powers.