The Role Of Nullification In The United States

Nullification in the United States can be defined as a legal, constitutional theory that gives any one of the states the right to declare any law passed by congress null and void that that particular state feels is unlawful or unconstitutional. It has been said that this theory has never been legally sustained by the federal court. The federal and state courts, not to mention the Supreme Court, have frequently rejected the idea of Nullification. All of the courts banded together and came to the decision that, under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution of the United States, federal laws overrule state laws, and that according to Article III of the Constitution, the federal judiciary has the final authority to interpret the Constitution.
Under the compact theory, the States can renounce, or nullify, federal laws appointed by Congress that the States feel is above the powers of the federal government. That being said, the compact theory declares that the states, not the federal government, are the initial explicators of the degree of the power of the federal government.
The similar view of interposition is a theory that a state has not only the right, but the obligation to arbitrate itself when the federal government executes any law the state feels is unconstitutional. Founding fathers such as James Madison and Thomas Jefferson enacted these theories of interposition and nullification in 1789 during the Kentucky and Virginia
The South Carolina Exposition and Protest of 1828, written by John C. Calhoun, is the most well-known statement of the theory of nullification during this time period.
South Carolina, in 1832, initiated to nullify the Tariff of 1828 and 1832, in addition to a consecutive federal act allowing the use of force to enforce tariffs in 1828. South Carolina then implied to ban the administration of these tariff acts within the state. The firm pro-Union stance of President Andrew Jackson brought forth more complaints from leaders of the South. Following the enactment of the Tariff Act of 1832, South Carolina had announced a state convention which had succeed in passing the ordinance of nullification in 1832.
The Nullification Theory was so relevant because it highlighted and illustrated the diversity between the northern states and the southern states. The north was desperately trying to flourish and cultivate its manufacturing industry by levying import-tariffs, which was financially covered mostly by the southern states who had their one and only main asset – cotton – which required several major