
Originally Posted by
matchlight
Beats hell out of me. Anyone who respects the rule of law and the Constitution of the U.S. is part of the "states' rights" crowd. The Tenth Amendment is not just decoration, but an important part of the Constitution. And anyone who does not know what the term "federalism" means might want to learn about it. It is one of several bulwarks against abuse of power designed into the structure of the Constitution. The Supreme Court commented on this in New York v. United States, a Tenth Amendment decision from 1990.
Your remark about the rights of counties and cities is at least good for a laugh. States are sovereigns (there's that Tenth Amendment again, which collectivists hate so much) and as such have inherent power to make laws and policies. The Court has referred to this as the "police (as in "policy," not the cops) power." Counties and cities are creatures of their states, and as such they have no inherent powers at all. They have only those powers the states saw fit to give them through enabling laws. States in some cases have given them quite a lot of autonomy, but the state can also take it away.