The Tenth Amendment

"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."

    The Tenth Amendment is also a residual amendment, much like the Ninth Amendment.  Its function is to clarify the comparative roles of the federal government and the states.  Federal law takes priority over state law as a result of the Supremacy Clause, but the federal government is limited to acting in areas enumerated in the Constitution.  This strict limitation on federal power has been greatly relaxed through a liberal interpretation of the Commerce Clause, which grants the federal government the power to regulate commerce between the states.  The Supreme Court has held that many local transactions and events indirectly affect interstate commerce in irreducible aggregates, thereby providing Congress the power to regulate.  However, it is still difficult for Congress to legislate in areas over which the states have traditionally exercised exclusive control, and the federal government is still limited by this Amendment to acting only within its enumerated powers.

Know Your Rights

  • Amendment I
  • Freedom of speech, assembly, and  religion
  • Amendment II
  • Right to bear arms
  • Amendment IIII
  • Quartering of soldiers
  • Amendment IV
  • Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures
  • Amendment V
  • Right against self-incrimination, double jeopardy, uncompensated takings; due process of law
  • Amendment VI
  • Right to speedy and public jury trial; right to confront witnesses; right to counsel
  • Amendment VII
  • Right to jury in civil trials
  • Amendment VIII
  • Prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail
  • Amendment IX
  • Reterntion of unenumerated rights by the people
  • Amendment X
  • Rights reserved by the states
  • Amendment XIV
  • Right to citizenship, due process of law, equal protection of the laws