State's Rights

1777

The Articles of Confederation, the precursor to the U.S. Constitution, declares that the states "hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each other, for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare" but retain all "sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled."

1787

The Articles of Confederation are replaced by the U.S. Constitution, which grants broader powers to the federal government over the states.

1790

The Tenth Amendment, ratified as part of the U.S. Bill of Rights, states that "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."

1798

The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions challenge the repressive Alien and Sedition Acts, which restricted the rights of immigrants and limited free speech. The partial basis for the Resolutions is the conflict between federal and state rights; Confederates will later cite passages from the Resolutions, out of context, as a means of challenging anticipated federal restrictions on slavery.

1819

In McCulloch v. Maryland, the U.S. Supreme Court holds that the federal government has both explicit and implicit powers. The basis for the ruling is, in part, Article I, section 8, clause 18 of the U.S. Constitution, which states that Congress "shall have Power ... to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer there of." This will later become known as the necessary and proper clause.

1861

Citing slavery as a state's right issue, 11 U.S. states secede to form the Confederate States of America. After the war, some states - such as Mississippi - pass "Black Codes" to restrict the rights of newly-freed African Americans. This will later develop into Jim Crow.

1925

In Gitlow v. New York, the Supreme Court holds that the Bill of Rights applies to the states as well as to the federal government - an interpretation implicit in the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The belief that states are bound to follow the U.S. Bill of Rights is referred to as the incorporation doctrine, and is held by most members of the U.S. Supreme Court today.

1948

White supremacist Strom Thurmond runs for president under the banner of the State's Rights Party, which holds that Jim Crow and racial segregation are state's rights issues. For the rest of the 20th century, the phrase "state's rights" will function as a euphemism for racial segregation, particularly in the South.

1954

In Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court orders the gradual integration of the U.S. public school system.

1956

Infuriated by the Brown ruling, white segregationist policymakers in Mississippi create the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission to "do and perform any and all acts deemed necessary and proper to protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi, and her sister states" from federal encroachment.

1964

Congress passes the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, officially using federal power to challenge state-level racial segregation laws. The Act is still controversial among Republicans today.