Reading the Virginia Resolution: How Can States Determine the Constitutionality of Laws?

Primary Source Close Reading with BRI investigates some of the most pivotal speeches and documents that made America. In this series, join BRI staff Kirk Higgins and guests as they dissect how seminal documents, court cases, and speeches forged America’s development and impact our lives today.

Who determines the constitutionality of laws? In part one of a two-part series, Kirk starts his examination of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions by breaking down the Kentucky Resolution into easy-to-understand concepts. Should individual states have the power to challenge federal laws and declare them unconstitutional?

These resolutions were passed by the legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia in response to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and were authored by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, respectively. The resolutions argued that the federal government had no authority to exercise power not specifically delegated to it in the Constitution.

Use this primary source text to explore key historical events.