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by comte7092 716 days ago
> The States in turn delegate certain powers to the Federal government at the pleasure of the States.

This is blatantly false. The constitution explicitly states that that it draws its power directly from the people “we the people” in the preamble. From the the supremacy clause explicitly states that the constitution is the fundamental law of the land, and that the heiarchy from there is federal law, treaties and then state law. The caveat being that the federal government is delegated limited, enumerated powers by the constitution.

1 comments

Here's the thing though: The Constitution and amendments thereof are (re)written and ratified by the States at the States' pleasure, which answer to the Peoples of the States respectively. The Federal government cannot modify the Constitution by itself, it's at the mercy of the States and their Peoples.

Thus the pecking order: People > States > Federal.

The People can demand their respective States to modify the Constitution as desired to (re)define the powers delegated from the People to the State and Federal governments.

The states didn’t write nor did they ratify the constitution (it was done at special conventions separate from the state governments themselves), nor do they write amendments.

I honestly don’t know what to tell you at this point. This is basic constitutional history and legal theory, the federal government draws its authority directly from the people.

Regardless of whether Congress or the States pedantically write new amendments, they must be ratified by 3/4ths of all States in the Union. Ergo, the States ultimately write what goes into the Constitution, and the States answer to their Peoples respectively.

The Constitution itself was also ratified by 9 of 13 States to start.

Congress and thus the Federal government cannot modify the Constitution by themselves, they serve at the pleasure of the States.