The Tenth Amendment

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The American government is an extremely complex, yet important and unique system that the United States relies on. American society is greatly influenced by the government as it has a hand in nearly everything citizens do. However, despite this immense presence, many Americans are oblivious to the governmental actions and decisions that have an impact on their daily lives. This is evidently problematic.
After thoroughly analyzing and discussing each amendment in the Bill of Rights, and composing papers on the Second, Fifth, and Tenth Amendment (see attachments), I have come to the conclusion, that if citizens are not properly educated on their rights and governmental restrictions, then the federal government will insidiously become too powerful. …show more content…
Originally, the Framers intended the country to focus on state sovereignty rather than a strong central government. Nevertheless, the federal government will take every opportunity to grow stronger. The Tenth Amendment states, “‘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’” (qtd. in Alderman and Kennedy 325). The Framers included the Tenth Amendment as the last amendment in the Bill of Rights, and similar to the Ninth Amendment’s meaning which also alludes to unenumerated rights, the meaning of the Tenth Amendment is not commonly disputed, but it should begin to be. Throughout the US Constitution, state and individual rights are never enumerated. Due to this, the United States only decides what state rights are, and if the federal government is impeding on them, on a case-by-case …show more content…
American citizens need to recognize when their rights are being infringed on, not just individual rights, but state rights as well. Citizens cannot argue for or against something that they are ignorant to. Additionally, this is why it is important to be educated on the details of each amendment rather than seeing each amendment as a vocabulary word paired with a simple definition. As the Courts continue to change the meanings, there are multiple loopholes and phrases that are interpreted broadly or narrowly. When arguing rights, one can quickly look foolish if he or she is ignorantly arguing for something based on false or inadequate
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