Elizabeth Jo

Well, for sure.

Then you're agreeing with the majority, which, you know, the court has said repeatedly.

Yeah.

And in a way, it does make sense to have that consistency because we see the 10th Amendment's anti-commandeering principle.

It's not a blue state weapon nor a red state weapon.

It is a an argument that states make against the federal government.

Yeah.

So there's another less commonly discussed aspect of the Tenth Amendment, and it's called the equal sovereignty doctrine.

Again, it's not in there.

It doesn't refer to it.

None of those words are there.

But the court has recognized this idea.

And the idea of equal sovereignty is that Congress can't pass laws that treat states unequally, or at least probably they can't do so unless they have a really, really, really good reason.

Right.

Yeah.

So in Shelby County versus Holder in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act.

And part of what was disputed were certain identifications.

Like if you're a jurisdiction with a history of racial discrimination, you had a certain formula that applied to you.

And that formula meant that these jurisdictions had to obtain what the law called preclearance from the Justice Department before changing any voting procedures.

And part of the reason the Supreme Court struck down these provisions of the VRA, they said that was a departure from the fundamental principle of equal sovereignty.