Discourse was virtually impossible (that was the plan) and the problem of states' rights has become much deeper than code words. If I remember correctly Robert Bork has suggested that you can forget states' rights. If you read Mr. Keyes' brilliant (it really is brilliant and applies to far more than religion) you know what a free people are up against.
To wit, in the matter of religion the federal judges and justices whether through carelessness or an artful effort to deceive . . . usurped this right of the people, substituting for the republican approach adopted by the Constitution an oligarchic approach that reserves to a handful of unelected individuals the power to impose on the entire nation a uniform stance on religion at every level of government.
In the 1960s when the liberals made "states' rights" a code word they were celebrating "sociological jurisprudence." That is, the courts bowing to what passed for polls in those days. Today those polls that show opposition to the court's actions are a threat to law and order -- ironically "law and order" is another 1960s liberal cum neocon inspired code word. "Lawn" order meant the N word. You were a racist if you were for "lawn order."
... and I say ... segregation today ... segregation tomorrow ... segregation forever.