The 10th amendment is completely worthless. All it does is say what happens to powers NOT delegated to the national government. But that's not the problem.
The problem is WHAT powers ARE delegated. The 10th does absolutely nothing to clarify or limit what falls into that category. It remains a question for the national branches to determine for themselves, with the judiciary getting the last word.
10th amendment arguments therefore become nullification arguments. The truth is, the states gave up true sovereignty when they ratified the Constitution. They became mere agencies of the national government. Or as James Madison put it:
Conceiving that an individual independence of the States is utterly irreconcileable with their aggregate sovereignty; and that a consolidation of the whole into one simple republic would be as inexpedient as it is unattainable, I have sought for some middle ground, which may at once support a due supremacy of the national authority, and not exclude the local authorities wherever they can be subordinately useful."Letter to G. Washington, April 16 1787
10th Amemdment: “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.”
“...........Perry vs. the Bushes, Perry vs. Washington, Perry vs. the Establishment: That’s potent stuff for racking up votes in Waco and Amarillo, and the conservative suburbs of Dallas and Houston. But it’s not just Perry’s politics — it’s his policy, too.
Here’s something you won’t hear an up-and-down-the-line conservative like Perry saying all that often: “If you don’t like medical marijuana and gay marriage, don’t move to California.” Don’t move to California is a major theme of Texas’s economic-development program, and in fact Californians are moving to Texas at a pretty good clip, as economist Arthur Laffer documented in his report “Rich States, Poor States” (see “Going Alamo,” National Review, July 20, 2009). Perry is content for Californians to let their freak flags fly, though he confesses that he recoils from some of the implications of his hard-line constitutionalism: The thought of flag-burning, for instance, makes Rick Perry one angry Eagle Scout. But his laissez-faire attitude is surprisingly broad, something he has in common with another distinguished governor, Sarah Palin, whose libertarian streak on questions like marijuana use is an underappreciated component of her political character. “Don’t make me accept it as normal,” Perry says, “and do not make me pay for it. But that’s classic Tenth Amendment, and I’ll fight to the death for California’s right to decide for themselves how they want to live.” And then he adds with an earnest, butter-wouldn’t-melt smile: “You want high taxes and an onerous regulatory climate, that’s your choice.” As he says this, he swivels around excitedly in his desk chair, the cuffs of his trousers hiking up to reveal a pair of cowboy boots emblazoned “Liberty” and “Freedom.”
Perry loves federalism in principle, because it is a critical part of his understanding of the well-balanced American constitutional order — and also because he’s confident that if it comes down to competition among the states, Texas is going to come out on top. He has a firebrand’s style but a traditional conservative’s skepticism of ideology. Asked to describe his governing philosophy, he chuckles, “Don’t spend all the money.” Like most governors, he is not particularly interested in ideological purism or abstract intellectual consistency. He’s a free-market guy, to be sure, but he also likes to brag about the state’s Enterprise Fund and Emerging Technology Fund, which it uses to bribe (my word) businesses to set up shop. Yes, practically every state and city in the country has an “economic development” program like that, and they’re all kind of distasteful to hardcore free-enterprise ideologues, but Texas gets more for its money than do most states, including a rate of job growth that is phenomenal compared with the rest of the big states’..............................”