According to "Wikipedia," the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions (incorporating the "Principles of [17]98") were written by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, respectively and were merely their individual OPINIONS about the asserted POWER (not "right") of the states to refuse to enforce federal constitutional principles, smugly repeated by Pauline Madden in [the T-D] on August 31. Those opinions embracing "nullification" and "interposition" (a/k/a "states' rights") were clearly rejected by the outcome of the Civil War, so one must wonder about those who, like Madden, continue to beat that dead horse today. Seven of the new states pointedly REJECTED adopting those Resolutions. None of the 13 original states adopted them. George Washington was vehemently opposed to them.
Jefferson and Madison did not like the idea of the federal courts being the sole judges of the constitutionality of federal acts, as Alexander Hamilton had asserted in the Federalist Papers (incidentally co-authored by James Madison). Most opinions of the day agreed with Hamilton's views on the matter, that the federal courts should be the EXCLUSIVE arbiter of federal constitutional law. This view was buttressed by John Marshall's opinion in 1803 establishing the principle of (federal) judicial review in MARBURY vs. MADISON.
The phrase, "states' rights," does not appear in the US Constitution anywhere. There is no expression therein of the powers of "nullification" nor "interposition" nor "secession." I think it's way past time to give all that "states' rights" foolishness a rest.
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