states rights

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states' rights In the USA, the doctrine that the states have authority in matters not delegated to the federal government. The controversy between federal and state jurisdiction reached a peak with John C. Calhoun's interpretation that a state could refuse to obey a federal law it deemed unconstitutional. This led to the Nullification Crisis (1832) and contributed to secession and the Civil War. It was also an issue during the civil rights' movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

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