Tenth Amendment Essay

Tenth Amendment

Our bill of rights all began when James Madison, the primary author of the constitution, proposed 20 amendments for the bill of rights and not the ten we know of today. Madison sent these twenty proposed rights through the house and the senate and was left with twelve bill of rights. Madison himself took some out. These amendments were then sent to the states to be ratified. Virginia was the tenth state out of the fourteenth states to approve 10 out of 12 amendments. This two-third majority was necessary to make the bill of rights legal. On December 15, 1791 the bill of rights were finally ratified. Big supporters of the tenth amendment were anti-federalist. Anti-federalist are people who oppose a strong central government.
The articles of confederation were adopted by the continental congress on December 15, 1777. It created a weak central government leaving most of the power to the states. Even though this was what the anti-federalist wanted they knew they needed a change in government. The articles of confederation states in section two that “Each state retains its 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.” This is where the tenth amendment derived from with certain modifications. Both the tenth amendment and the articles of confederation state that the powers not listed are reserved for the states. The reason why the tenth amendment was included was because of the fight that the anti-federalist put up. They demanded state and individual rights so James Madison drafted up the bill of
The Commerce Clause refers to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes.” The commerce clause gives power to the government over the states. This was established in the Gibbons v. Ogden case in 1824. Gibbons and Ogden both were running their steamboats along the same route, on the Hudson River, which was between New Jersey and New York. Ogden got an injunction through a New York state court. This injunction concluded that Ogden had got exclusive rights by the state to operate that route. Gibbons had received his permit from the federal government. The New York court sided with Ogden and ordered Gibbons to stop operating his steamships. Gibbons then preceded to take this to the Supreme Court. John Marshall sided with Gibbons and said that New York’s grant to Ogden violated the federal licensing act of 1793 and for the first time the commerce clause was interpreted. It was concluded that the government had the power to regulate this because of the commerce clause. Since then the commerce clause has expanded the power of the government furthermore than the states would like it