States had the authority to ignore federal laws.
When Virginia and Kentucky in the late 1700s and South Carolina in the 1830s refused to follow federal law they were practicing nullification.
Nullification
By Nicholas B. Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina argued that the states had the right of Nullification, an action by a state that cancels a federal law to which the state objects. If accepted, Calhoun's ideas would seriously weaken the federal government.
States' Rights is the theory that state and local government's actions and laws in dealing with social and economic problems are supreme to federal actions and laws. The theory goes back to the founding of our nation. Jefferson and Madison advocated states' rights in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. John C. Calhoun's Theory of Nullification, the South's justification for declaring independence from the US, also advocates states' rights.
States had the authority to ignore federal laws.
Jackson threatened to send federal troops to South Carolina to force them to comply with the law. Jackson did send troops.
The Doctrine of Nullification.
South Carolina's basic argument for nullification was that states had the right to declare federal laws unconstitutional and therefore null and void within their borders, as outlined in Thomas Jefferson and James Madison's Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. They believed that the Constitution was a compact among the states and that states had the ultimate authority to determine the constitutionality of federal laws.
Nullification!
Calhoun's nullification theory was that if the federal government refused to permit a state to nullify a federal law, the state had the right to withdraw from the Union.
it strengthened the federal government
State nullification is the idea that the states can and must refuse to enforce unconstitutional federal laws.
Nullification.
When Virginia and Kentucky in the late 1700s and South Carolina in the 1830s refused to follow federal law they were practicing nullification.
The Doctrine of Nullification held that states had the right to declare null and void any federal law they deem unconstitutional.
States' rights vs. federal power. Nullification debates centered on whether states had the authority to reject federal laws they deemed unconstitutional. The spread of slavery raised questions about whether new territories should be slave or free states, highlighting the conflict between states' rights to determine their own affairs and federal regulation.