Powers retained by state governments under the Tenth Amendment, including all powers not specifically granted to the federal government or prohibited to the states. These traditionally include education, marriage laws, criminal law, and local governance.
From Latin 'reservare' (to keep back or save). The Tenth Amendment, ratified in 1791, was added to explicitly reserve undefined powers to states, addressing Anti-Federalist concerns about federal overreach.
Reserved powers were supposed to keep states as the primary governments in Americans' daily lives, but the Civil War and 20th-century federal expansion flipped this upside down—now states fight to maintain control over issues like marijuana laws and bathroom regulations while the feds dominate everything else!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.