States' Rights

States' rights in U.S. politics refers to political powers reserved for the U.S. state governments rather than the federal government. Since the 1940s, it has often been considered a loaded term because of its use in opposition to federally mandated racial desegregation. In law, states' prerogatives are protected by the Tenth Amendment.

Read more about States' Rights:  Background, Text, Controversy To 1865, Since 1865, Contemporary Debates, 10th Amendment Resolutions, States' Rights and The Rehnquist Court, States' Rights As "code Word"

Famous quotes containing the word rights:

    We live in a highly industrialized society and every member of the Black nation must be as academically and technologically developed as possible. To wage a revolution, we need competent teachers, doctors, nurses, electronics experts, chemists, biologists, physicists, political scientists, and so on and so forth. Black women sitting at home reading bedtime stories to their children are just not going to make it.
    Frances Beale, African American feminist and civil rights activist. The Black Woman, ch. 14 (1970)