Question

"Resolved that the several states composing the US. of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the US ...., they constituted a general government for special purposes, delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each state to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the General government assumes undelegated powers, it’s acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." -
Jefferson's Draft (Before 4 October, 1798) Kentucky Resolution

This excerpt of Jefferson's Kentucky Resolution introduces the theory of

A) federalism.
B) interposition.
C) implied powers
D) nullification.

Answer 1

The Kentucky Resolution argued the idea of the states' ability to declare a federal law invalid. This became know as (nullification. )

Answer 2

The correct answer is: D) nullification.

Jefferson's Kentucky Resolution (drafted in 1798) introduces the theory of nullification. This means that states, individually, can judge a central government law and declare it unconstitutional if they desire to do so.