How has the Supreme Court interpreted the Tenth Amendment of the US Constitution?

The Tenth Amendment of the US Constitution states that “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.” In other words, the Amendment is a safeguard of state powers, designed to ensure that the federal government does not take away endeavors that should be addressed on the state level. The Supreme Court of the United States has interpreted the Tenth Amendment in a variety of ways over the years, focusing especially on the relationship between the federal and state governments. In New York v. United States (1992), the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government could not impose upon states a requirement to take on the burden of regulating a certain type of activity. The Court reasoned that the Tenth Amendment restricted the federal government from “commandeering” the states to enforce federal regulations. In United States v. Lopez (1995), the Supreme Court declared that the federal government did not have the authority to regulate the possession of a gun near a school under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, since such an action would go beyond the boundaries of the Tenth Amendment and intrude on state authority and prerogatives. The Supreme Court also interpreted the Tenth Amendment in several cases involving the rights of individuals. In United States v. Morrison (2000), the Court decided that Congress could not use its powers under the Commerce Clause to create a private remedy to address gender‑motivated violence that had occurred within a state’s borders. According to the Court, such a law would be an unconstitutional violation of the Tenth Amendment. These cases demonstrate that the Supreme Court of the United States has taken seriously the scope of powers granted to the federal government by the Constitution, and has been willing to restrict the federal government from encroaching on states’ powers as articulated in the Tenth Amendment.

How has the Supreme Court interpreted the Tenth Amendment of the US Constitution?

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