States' rights

In American political discourse, states' rights refers to political powers reserved for the U.S. state governments rather than the federal government according to the United States Constitution, reflecting especially the enumerated powers of Congress and the Tenth Amendment. The enumerated powers that are listed in the Constitution include exclusive federal powers, as well as concurrent powers that are shared with the states, and all of those powers are contrasted with the reserved powers—also called states' rights—that only the states possess.

Background

The balance of federal powers and those powers held by the states as defined in the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution was first addressed in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). The Court's decision by Chief Justice John Marshall asserted that the laws adopted by the federal government, when exercising its constitutional powers, are generally paramount over any conflicting laws adopted by state governments. After McCulloch, the primary legal issues in this area concerned the scope of Congress' constitutional powers, and whether the states possess certain powers to the exclusion of the federal government, even if the Constitution does not explicitly limit them to the states.

Reagan's Neshoba County Fair "states' rights" speech

As part of his 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan made an appearance at the Neshoba County Fair where he gave a speech on August 3, 1980. The speech drew attention for his use of the phrase "states' rights". Critics claim that Reagan's choice of location for the speech (the fairgrounds were just a few miles from Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town associated with the 1964 murders of civil rights workers) was evidence of racial bias.

During his speech, Reagan said:

He went on to promise to "restore to states and local governments the power that properly belongs to them." The use of the phrase was seen by some as a tacit appeal to Southern white voters and a continuation of Richard Nixon's Southern strategy, while others argued it merely reflected his libertarian economic beliefs.

Reception

Reagan's critics, interpreting the words "states' rights" as akin to a desire to return to pre-Civil Rights laws regarding segregation, felt that he was at least insensitive to the concerns of blacks, or that he even was using this location and these words as a cynical, coded appeal to the white racist vote. Columnist Bob Herbert of The New York Times wrote, "Everybody watching the 1980 campaign knew what Reagan was signaling at the fair," and that it "was understood that when politicians started chirping about 'states’ rights' to white people in places like Neshoba County they were saying that when it comes down to you and the blacks, we’re with you".Paul Krugman, also of the Times, noted that a Republican national committee member from Mississippi had urged Reagan to speak at the county fair, as it would help win over “George Wallace-inclined voters”, and wrote that this was just one of many examples of "Reagan’s tacit race-baiting in the historical record."

States' rights (disambiguation)

States' rights in the United States of America are political powers reserved for the U.S. state governments rather than the federal government.

States' Rights, States Rights, or state rights may also refer to:

See also