Wrong answer. They were.
They amounted to nothing more than the opinions of those who authored it, and the Articles of Confederation were never ratified by any state.
From Wikipedia:
"The Articles of Confederation were submitted to the states for ratification on November 17, 1777, accompanied by a letter from Congress urging that the document
"be candidly reviewed under a sense of the difficulty of combining in one general
system the various sentiments and interests of a continent divided into so many
sovereign and independent communities, under a conviction of the absolute
necessity of uniting all our councils and all our strength, to maintain and
defend our common liberties . . .The document only became effective as it was ratified by the states. This process dragged on for several years, stalled by an interstate quarrel over claims to uncolonized land in the west. All of the colonies rebelling against Britain ratified it by 1781.
Source: Wikipedia.