Ammendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Amendment X:
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
The Tenth Amendment makes no reference to "Rights", but only to "Powers". The Ninth Amendment uses "Rights" in context with "the People" and never with the "State". These terms, "Rights" and "Powers", are never used interchangeably by the Founding Fathers throughout the Constitution. In short, "States may only have the "Powers" that are granted to it by "the People". A "State" has no "Rights" at all. None!
This use of the language was noted by the Bush Department of Justice in proffering its opinion that the Second Amendment, as it was worded, was an "individual right".
Most Americans confuse "Rights and Powers". "Rights" are inalienable and pre-existing, like gold. "Powers" are conditional upon the will and permission of the people and are created like currency. When the bogus notion of "States Rights" is finally gone from the public discourse, America will have more freedom and less governmental abuse.
"States Rights", when one really ponders the meaning of that construction of words, is actually Marxist. It places the State above the Individual.