Constitutional Convention
The 10th Amendment: An Introduction
“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.” What does it mean, why did they think it was so important? And would we even have a...
Gouverneur Morris’s Rewriting of the Constitution
Recently, the Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism held its annual Works-in-Progress Conference. One of the papers was written by Dean William Treanor of Georgetown Law School. (Both Bill and I were at Yale Law School as students and we both wrote...
The Constitution: A League of States Rather than a National Government
Today in 1787, representatives in Philadelphia signed the finalized United States Constitution. This occurred after a summer filled with contrasting proposals and rigorous debate. The convention decided upon a league of states rather than a national government,...
James Madison’s Federalism Flip-Flop
TAC memberships help us produce more educational tools like this. Members can download this video and read the full transcript here. Here’s the bottom line: Feature or flaw, states are not required to help enforce federal acts. Opting out of them is a powerful...