States Rights

A term referring to an individual state's right to do what the federal government tells it to do. In the United States, a state may pass a law that differs from those in other states or from federal law. If that law doesn't meet current conservative standards, however, the federal government reserves the right to bleed away funding and grants until the state changes the offending law to save itself. One example would be marriage amendments - all states have the right to pass local legislation as long as it bans the practice of gay marriage (which is already illegal in most states but why not amend the constitution just to be sure - It's not bigotry if it's on parchment).