Why James Madison wanted greater limits on states’ rights

Supreme Court reaffirmed something about the American constitutional order that had been widely understood since the founding.

Namely, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government and placed no limits on the authority of the states.

"Congress shall make no law," it reads, "respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Under the original Constitution, in other words, a state government was free to make laws that abridged the rights of speech, press, religion, and assembly without raising any First Amendment problems.

Bold News stores the normalized extraction for evidence and analysis. This public wrapper shows a limited excerpt; use the original link for the publisher's complete presentation.