Nullification (U.S. Constitution)

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Nullification (U.S. Constitution)

Nullification is a legal theory that a U.S. State

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 state of the United States that share sovereignty with the federal government of the United States . Because of this shared sovereignty, an United States is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of Domicile ....
has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal law which that state has deemed unconstitutional

Constitutionality

Constitutionality is the status of a law, a procedure, or an act's accordance with the laws or guidelines set forth in the applicable constitution....
. The theory is based on a view that the sovereign States formed the Union, and as creators of the compact hold final authority regarding the limits of the power of the central government. Under this, the compact theory

Compact theory

The compact theory is a theory relating to the development of the United States Constitution of the United States of America, claiming that the formation of the nation was through a compact by all of the states individually and that the national government is consequently a creation of the states....
, the States and not the Federal Bench

United States federal courts

The United States federal courts comprises the Judiciary of government organized under the United States Constitution and Law of the United States of the federal government of the United States....
are the ultimate interpreters of the extent of the national Government's power.

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Nullification is a legal theory that a U.S. State

U.S. state

Constitutionality

Compact theory

United States federal courts

Secession in the United States

Attempts or aspirations of secession have been a feature of the politics of the United States since the country's birth. The line between actions based on a constitutional right of secession as opposed to actions justified by the extraconstitutional natural right of revolution has shaped the political debate....
, by which a state terminates its political affiliation with the Union.

One of the earliest and most famous examples is to be found in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions

The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions were important political statements in favor of states' rights written secretly by Vice President Thomas Jefferson ,who would later become president, and James Madison in 1798, respectively....
, a protest against the Alien and Sedition Acts

Alien and Sedition Acts

The Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills passed in 1798. They were signed into law by President John Adams, and the Federalist Party in the United States Congress?who were waging an undeclared naval war with France, later known as the Quasi-War....
. In these resolutions, authors Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States , the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States....
and James Madison

James Madison

James Madison was an American politician and political philosopher who served as the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States , and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States....
argued that the states are the ultimate interpreters of the Constitution and can "interpose" to protect state citizens from the operation of unconstitutional national laws.

While some interests in northern states occasionally considered the possibility of secession after Jefferson's party gained control of the federal government in the years after 1801, for example at the Hartford Convention

Hartford Convention

The Hartford Convention was an event in 1814–1815 in the United States during the War of 1812 in which New England's opposition to the war reached the point where secession from the United States was discussed....
, the idea of nullification increasingly became associated with the southern states as a means of protecting the institution of slavery. The most famous statement of the theory of nullification, authored by John C. Calhoun

John C. Calhoun

John Caldwell Calhoun was the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States. He was a leading United States Southern politician from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century....
, appeared in the South Carolina Exposition and Protest

South Carolina Exposition and Protest

The South Carolina Exposition and Protest, also known as Calhoun's Exposition, was written in 1828 by John C. Calhoun, the Vice President of the United States under Andrew Jackson....
of 1828. Four years later, during the Nullification Crisis

Nullification Crisis

The Nullification Crisis was a sectionalism crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson created by the Ordinance of Nullification, an attempt by the state of South Carolina to Nullification a federal law passed by the United States Congress....
, South Carolina undertook to nullify a federal tariff

Tariff

A tariff is a tax imposed on goods when they are moved across a political boundary. They are usually associated with protectionism, the economic policy of restraining trade between nations....
law and a subsequent federal bill authorizing the use of force against the state.

Northern states in the 1840s and 1850s attempted to block enforcement of the pro-slavery federal Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850

Fugitive slave laws

The fugitive slave laws were laws passed by the United States Congress in 1793 and 1850 to provide for the return of slaves who escaped from one state into another or into a public territory....
. These actions had the effect, in many local situations, of nullifying the effectiveness of these laws, but did not declare that the fugitive slave laws were nullified. The most famous examples of this centered around northern states' personal liberty laws

Personal liberty laws

The personal liberty laws were a series of laws passed by several U.S. states in the Northern United States in response to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and 1850....
. The U.S. Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
dealt with the validity of these laws in the 1842 case of Prigg v. Pennsylvania
Prigg v. Pennsylvania

Prigg v. Pennsylvania, , was a Supreme Court of the United States case in which the court held that Federal law is superior to State law, and overturned the conviction of Edward Prigg as a result....
. The Supreme Court also dealt with this issue in the 1859 case of Ableman v. Booth
Ableman v. Booth

Ableman v. Booth, Case citation , is a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that state courts cannot issue rulings that contradict the decisions of federal courts....
.

Nullification (U.S. Constitution)

See also