[lentulusgracchus]

Well, there's the problem about how "the People" is defined. The "People" of Tennessee is different from the "people" of the United States or East Tennessee or Knoxville or of this or that block or neighborhood.

Not in American practice. In American constitutional law and history, "the people" are coterminous with the State of whom they are individually constituents, and collectively the Sovereign.

Moreover you're all for checks and balances when it comes to what others can do, but want absolute sovereignty for yourself.

I think you are misrepresenting what I've said. I don't "want" absolute sovereignty for myself, but I insist that it is the fact de jure that the People are absolutely sovereign.

[capitan_refugio]

"Not in American practice. In American constitutional law and history, "the people" are coterminous with the State of whom they are individually constituents, and collectively the Sovereign."

That is why the the Preamble to the Constitution reads, "We the PeopleS of the United States of America ..."

[capitan_refugio]

The states have never possessed the full range of sovereign powers. Could they declare war, individually? Could the negotiate with foreign powers, individually?

NO

That is why they are semi-sovereign, at best.