You previously mentioned:
"--- James Madison fought Thomas Jefferson over that very concept a long time ago. The Federalists won. The papers (both sides of the argument) make for an awesome, mind opening read.
According to the article, -- Madison & Jefferson agreed on a States right to nullify:
" --- nullification was not simply a doctrine that Jefferson and Madison contrived out of nowhere as an ad hoc response to the threat to civil liberties posed by the Alien and Sedition Acts. -- "
Perhaps they didn't disagree on the concept that ALL levels of government, Fed/State/local must support the US Constitution?
"Perhaps they didn't disagree on the concept that ALL levels of government, Fed/State/local must support the US Constitution?"
You're right, they both agreed on that priciple .... to a point. Jefferson believed that the Federal Governments powers were strictly limited by what the people had consented to in the Constitution. He also believed that States ultimately had powers given to it which the citizens had not expressly given to the Federal government via the Constitution and thus maintained a higher level of sovereignty.
Even using Jefferson's logic however; the problem with the right of nullification is that this is not a case where the States could assume they had a right granted to them not expressly given to the Federal Government. The power to determine Constitutionality and nullify legislation based on that was expressly given by the people to the Supreme Court in Article 3, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution.