Source: Tenth Amendment Center
by Michael Boldin
“On December 15, 1791, the Bill of Rights was ratified and became part of the Constitution. Most people think they know why. But most actually don’t. It was birthed out of a brutal political battle between Federalists and Anti-Federalists over a question that nearly killed ratification: When the Constitution doesn’t mention a power, who gets to exercise it – the federal government or the people of the several states? Federalists insisted a Bill of Rights was unnecessary, even dangerous. The Constitution, they argued, was already designed to limit federal power to those delegated, and nothing more. Anti-Federalists shot back with a dark reality: government always assumes it can do whatever you haven’t explicitly forbidden. That fight got settled with a deal. And the deal’s centerpiece – the answer that saved ratification – was the Tenth Amendment.” (12/14/25)