Tenth Amendment
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 312 U.S. 100 - United States v. Darby · 1941Most cited · 2,621 citing opinions
The amendment states but a truism that all is retained which has not been surrendered. There is nothing in the history of its adoption to suggest that it was more than declaratory of the relationship between the national and state governments as it had been established by the Constitution before the amendment or that its purpose was other than to allay fears that the new national government might seek to exercise powers not granted, and that the states might not be able to exercise fully their reserved powers.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Tenth Amendment”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “Tenth Amendment” — 2,823 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 2 definitions, chronological · 1931–1941
- ORIGINAL
intended to confirm the understanding of the people at the time the Constitution was adopted, that powers not granted to the United States were reserved to the states or to the people. It added nothing to the instrument as originally ratified and has no limited and special operation upon the people's delegation by article 5 of certain functions to the Congress