Why Is The 10th Amendment Important

The 10th Amendment says that the powers not directly granted to the federal government by the United States Constitution or by the States, are reserved to the States and or to the people. This amendment to the U.S. Constitution does not provide an accurate measure of which powers belong to the national government and those which belong to the state government and the people. Due to the lack of specific distinction in the powers, the Tenth Amendment can become very open to interpretation regarding the rights and authority that the state and the national government have over certain issues. To aid in determining the difference in powers, proposed modifications to the Tenth Amendment, which would spell out specific rights of the state government, will be presented and explained. …show more content…
In the year 1789, James Madison wrote and proposed the 10th Amendment (10th Amendment). The amendment was passed by congress on the 25th of September 1789, and was latter ratified on December 15, 1791 in the Bill of Rights (Lawson). It was originally created due to existing fears that the newly established national government would exercise powers that were not given to it (Annotation 1). There were some problems with the passage of the Tenth Amendment. The Bill of Rights, which includes the 10th Amendment, faced challenges due to states like Massachusetts and Virginia. The amendment was questioned because it was considered that it was unnecessary because the limited powers of the federal government would not permit it to violate the rights of the States and or the people