Not long ago I wrote an article on nullification for a well-known libertarian publication. Nullification is the idea, pioneered by Thomas Jefferson and John C. Calhoun, that an American state has the right to "nullify" federal legislation that it believes violates the Constitution. As Virginian political thinker Abel Upshur put it, since no common umpire exists between the federal government and the states to render judgments on breaches of the Constitution, each state — as a constituent part and co-creator of the Union — has to make such determinations for itself. (The idea that the Supreme Court, itself a branch … Continue reading Nullification, States Rights, and Liberty