states' rights
the rights belonging to the various states, especially with reference to the strict interpretation of the Constitution, by which all rights not delegated by the Constitution to the federal government belong to the states.
Origin of states' rights
1Words Nearby states' rights
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use states' rights in a sentence
As LBJ did on civil rights, he must realize there are no constitutional or states-rights issues involved—and should say so.
Obama Knows Better on Question of States’ Rights Over Same-Sex Marriage | Jim Neal | May 17, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTMichele Bachmann supports states rights on gay marriage, but also supports a constitutional amendment outlawing it.
Now, this struck me as being a States rights plea, and as far as our domestic policy goes, I am a pretty liberal guy.
Warren Commission (5 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15) | The President's Commission on the Assassination of President KennedyThe speaker, Robert M. T. Hunter, was a so-called states-rights man, and a supporter of the independent treasury scheme.
Martin Van Buren | Edward M. ShepardThis same argument had previously been urged in my “Centralisation versus States Rights.”
Memoirs | Charles Godfrey Leland
The Democratic party began its career as a States-rights party.
American Eloquence, Volume I. (of 4) | VariousAs was to be expected, he had no regard whatever for states rights.
Gouverneur Morris | Theodore Roosevelt
British Dictionary definitions for states' rights
the rights and powers generally conceded to the states, or all those powers claimed for the states under some interpretations of the Constitution
a doctrine advocating the severe curtailment of Federal powers by such an interpretation of the Constitution
Derived forms of states' rights
- states righter, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for states' rights
Rights guaranteed to the states under the principle of federalism. Under the Constitution, states have considerable autonomy to pass, enforce, and interpret their own laws and to pursue their own public policy programs. Proponents of states' rights argue that the states should be governed with a minimum of interference from the federal government.
Notes for states' rights
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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