# 1301.8c - Compact Theory and Nullification

**Channel:** Chad Tomaselli
**Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdFHJ-mWst8
**Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/UdFHJ-mWst8

## Chapters

- 0:00 — Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
- 3:51 — Nullification and State Resistance
- 6:14 — Contract Theory and Judicial Review
- 8:50 — Why These Ideas Still Matter

## Transcript

**[0:00]:** reaction and resistance to the alien sedition X was Swift especially from Democratic Republicans like Jefferson and Madison Jefferson on the right Madison on the left or creeper papers which I hope I've made that joke about him before where it seems like his eyes follow you so now again it's more when you're in I'm in a classroom and he's up on the screen behind me but it's still creepy uh some Western and Southern States refused to comply with the alien Sedition Acts refuse to enforce those laws and in particular the states that led this where the Virginia Kentucky and what are called the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions in 1798 and 1799. Jefferson and Madison worked secretly with these two states to challenge the alien's Edition Acts basically challenged them as unconstitutional and challenging a law usually takes place in the courts but they did not do that the courts were controlled

**[0:57]:** by the Federalists and they believed it wasn't the role of the courts to deal with interpreting the Constitution which you may have just uh hopefully you realize that that the constitution does say that it's the courts to interpret the Constitution what's going to come out of this is is basically two different viewpoints of how interpreting of who interprets the Constitution and how they do it uh the two basic arguments they lay out again in the Virginia Kentucky Resolutions as response to the aliens Edition x which itself was a responsive French immigration from the French Revolution which we almost went to war with in the Quasi War because they weren't able to secure a treaty in the XYZ Affair all because of impressment and other things this has basically been one long path to get here two main arguments compact Theory and nullification compact theory is the argument that these States created and ratified or approved

**[1:57]:** the Constitution based on this is based on state power states rights style argument and compact Theory and this argument for how the Constitution was created States willingly gave up their powers to the fed the new federal government and had uh written out certain specified powers for that new government remember the states had the power under the Articles when the new constitution was created that power transferred from the states to the national government so what they're arguing is that the states wrote the Constitution and approved it and they willingly gave up those Powers which is is true the states did willingly give up their powers to the federal government but what they argued was that when the creation of that Constitution that they had written out certain specified powers this is a a strict also a bit of a strict construction it's not really one side of the debate it's not really an example of that

**[3:00]:** but you see that they're saying specified Powers is more of a strict construction interpretation not really an example of it though therefore they argued in compact Theory the states had the power to interpret the Constitution and decide if Government laws and actions were unconstitutional so because the states wrote and approved it and gave up Powers but specifically laid out what those Powers were then the states had the power to interpret the Constitution and decide if Government laws were or were not constitutional so here is all of that written out and you no I don't do this a lot so this is important this is one of the two most important ideas or most complex ideas we have compact Theory nullification is one the other one we already talked about funding an assumption

**[3:51]:** oh nullification is the second part of this this is how do states interpret the law and decide constitutionality under compact Theory compact theory is the why they're able to do this nullification is the how do they do this now nullification in general is a declaration by a state that laws are that a law is unenforceable within that state a declaration by a state that a law or laws are unenforceable within that state if a state believes a law is unconstitutional then they refuse to enforce it and we've seen how powerful the refusal to enforce a law can be remember the 13 colonies under the British salutary neglect for a hundred years the British refused to enforce those laws or force them fully and the Lesser law is enforced the less power it has the less Authority it has but then if you flip that switch you get problems if a law is not enforced does

**[4:54]:** it have any power even if it continues to exist not really so an unconstitutional law under nullification is unenforceable and therefore void it's actually generally true an unconstitutional law is unenforceable and therefore void now bring this back to Virginia Kentucky in response to alien sedition Jefferson and Madison argued that nullification only worked if done by a majority of the states so if there were 13 states you needed seven for nullification to work single States could not nullify laws on their own and of course this only works if the national government doesn't make a stink about it it doesn't remove or repeal a law the state cannot repeal or remove National laws passed by Congress but it removes Allah's Power by removing its enforcement so nullification States declare laws are unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable within their state it must be a majority of the states not a single one it doesn't actually remove or repeal the

**[5:58]:** law so the federal government exceeds the powers given to them by the states the states can nullify that law essentially declaring it unconstitutional and unenforceable that's nullification

**[6:14]:** so the summary success and significance of compact Theory nullification a summary compact Theory says the States created the Constitution and are interpreters of both it and National laws this is done through nullification where a majority of States agree to not enforce a law and thus render it powerless though is not actually repealed so that's the summary that's what compact area nullification are two sides of the same coin essentially compact theory is why the states can do this nullification is how the states do this so let's look at the success was it a success well the national government and the Supreme Court repeatedly shot down both of these ideas in favor of contract theory contract theory is the opposing idea to compact Theory it says that the people the people wrote and ratified the Constitution and it's based on locks John Locke's social contract which Jefferson used as a big basis and inspiration for the Declaration

**[7:23]:** so he's actually arguing back against his own idea I mean the Constitution itself or rather before I move on the people interpret the Constitution through the courts that's the how that's judicial review so contract theory says the people wrote and ratified the Constitution therefore the people interpret whether something is constitutional or not contract the area is the opposite to compact Theory judicial review the how under contract theory is that they go through the courts the courts interpret the law and constitutionality that judicial review is the counter to nullification it says the states interpret the Constitution okay so contract theory people courts compact theory states States nullification

**[8:25]:** the Constitution itself sort of piggyback of that and circle back to the successes the Constitution itself says the courts interpret the Constitution but it had not defined that and the US still hasn't figured that out yet at least not until 1803 which we'll get to in in a future video not long now

**[8:50]:** so that that's also why there was this wiggle room for for what this interpretation actually is therefore compact Theory and nullification were Incorrect and that remains the interpretation to this day they were not a success they're not how the US has interpreted the creation of the Constitution and the interpretation on who and how and why the Constitution is interpreted interpreted interpreted I feel like I've said that word a lot and I lost it there for a second so if they're wrong why are we spending so much time on them it brings us to significance despite being invalidated repeatedly the states will try to use compact Theory and nullification several times in the pre-civil War era regarding uh not only in the pre-civil War era but also by Southern States in response to the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and he also had one state tried nullification in 2000 around 2010 or 2011.

**[9:54]:** uh that tried to nullify the Affordable Care Act of South Carolina so it was just one state that's the thing every time nullification has been tried it's only ever been one state it's never been a majority uh so nullification has been tried several times in the pre-civil era we'll have two crises over nullification in this class in unit three and Confederate Southern and Confederate leaders base their belief in the ability of the states to secede on a Corruption of compact Theory specifically they took it as the Saints create the Constitution so since the states willingly created it the states can willingly leave that's not how that works but they were still using it and and compact theory for a time and even in some circles today compact compact Theory became a banner for states rights Advocates I don't know why my voice correct states rights Advocates despite being repeatedly refused refuted in the courts and

**[10:55]:** never successfully implemented so the significance of them is that they were incorrect but tried repeatedly corrupted uncorrupted they're a significant piece of particularly this first half of uh American independence or American story under the Constitution we're going to come back to both of these ideas several times particularly nullification which again comes from compact Theory so that's compact Theory and nullification very important ideas right and and be sure that you have the difference between compact Theory and contract theory okay because we're going to come back to both of those several times more so compact Theory nullification and less so contract and and judicial review but we will at least come back to both of them so make sure you have them separate especially when it comes to studying for the exam because only one of those appears on your study guide on the matching or short response section pretty well figure out which one based on

**[12:04]:** how much I talked about them so that's the response to the anus Edition x and that's essentially wraps up much of Adam's presidency so where we're going to move next is the next election and it's a big one