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."


This Amendment sort of works in contrary to the Ninth Amendment. It is basically stating that the powers that are not stated and given to the national government within the constitution will be decided by the states government or "to the people". When this was written I believe that the founding fathers were wanting very little federal government and for more power to be held within the states. This amendment gives more power to the states in that sense-- for example, states can decide for themselves whether or not to legalize gay marriage, not the federal government. This is one example of what the tenth amendment is speaking about.




In this video, Charles Key, a representative from Oklahoma, states his opinion on the tenth amendment and states his concern that the federal government is over stepping it's bounds and not taking into consideration what the tenth amendment clearly states. He speaks on behalf of many people in Oklahoma attempting to rid itself of the federal government meddling in the state's business.





This is a video of yet another state-- Kansas, rallying for sovereignty citing the 10th amendment to back it's argument.