Amendment 10: Reserved powers to the 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.

This amendment is important in realizing the separation between federal and state government as well as the people of the United States. Whatever powers that have not been given to our federal government fall to the state and the people. This allows states to have differing laws, taxes, whatever it may be that was not solely the responsibility of the federal government. This is very important in deciding where to draw the line between federal and state. Without it states and citizens may be less free in the powers that they are granted and challenge our democratic society.

This is a great overview of the amendment breaking down how the Constitution should be interpreted. Based on two things: the federal government is limited in its power, and the citizens are the ones with power. It clearly defines what people of each state are allowed as far as dealing with individual things not stated in the constitution. Allowing this freedom keeps the people in charge with more freedom of choice as far as running a state and solving unique problems go.

This conversation really details the usefulness of the amendment here, as far as determining these unnamed rights. They even stated that only the Army and Navy were to be created, so the Air Force should never have been created because it was not specifically listed. This permeates into so many things as far as our rights go and state power. There are ao many unnamed things that are crucial to the success of the United States, it is better to be left to subsidiary institutions rather than listed as roles of a federal government explicitly.