A little refresher on the history of our REPUBLIC, (NOT a democracy), and the genius of our Founding Fathers.
If the Crown represented anything to the Founding Fathers, it was the danger of central power. So they took pains to avoid this when drafting the new Constitution.
Indeed, the Articles of Confederation period of United States history shows just how entirely distrustful Americans were of centralized power. To that end, the Constitution gives broad powers to the states while intentionally limiting federal power.
While “States Rights” have become almost inextricably identified with slavery and segregation, the actual answer is much more complex than this: The states – and private organizations – have all powers not explicitly delegated to the United States federal government.
This means that virtually everything the federal government currently does is extra-Constitutional and properly the role of the 50 state governments. This is not just to provide for a decentralized government structure, but also to provide for people to be able to move from one state to another to live under laws closer to their own choosing.
The Founders would never have imagined that places as far apart geographically and culturally as Alabama and California would have the same laws.
“No position appears to me more true than this; that the General Govt. can not effectually exist without reserving to the States the possession of their local rights. They are the instruments upon which the Union must frequently depend for the support and execution of their powers, however immediately operating upon the people, and not upon the States.”
Charles Pinckney, “Plan for a Government for America,” Constitutional Convention, June 25, 1787
“It is most important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free Country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective Constitutional Spheres; avoiding in the exercise of the Powers of one department to encroach upon another.”
George Washington, Farewell Address, September 17, 1796
“The great object of my fear is the federal judiciary. That body, like gravity, ever acting, with noiseless foot, and unalarming advance, gaining ground step by step, and holding what it gains, is ingulfing insidiously the special governments into the jaws of that which feeds them.”
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Charles Hammon, August 18, 1821