These United States of America are a Republic of Sovereign States. The federal government derives its authority from the consent of the governed residing within their respective Sovereign State. Each Sovereign State is the agent of the people thereof. The federal government formed by the compact of the United States Constitution is the agent of the Sovereign States. Federal authority shall be supreme in all areas specifically delegated to it by the Constitution. All acts or legislation enacted pursuant to the Constitution shall be the supreme law of the land. Each Sovereign State, as with all Sovereigns, reserves the right to judge for itself as to the constitutionality of any act of its agent, the federal government.
James Ronald Kennedy points out the duty of the people of the Sovereign State to exercise their inalienable right to govern themselves is a right which existed before the formation of the federal government, and therefore, nothing in this amendment shall be interpreted in such a manner as to deem the federal government to be the donor of the rights as exercised by the people of the states.