The law, dubbed “the law that kills,” was so broad it prevented local ordinances that mandated things such as water breaks for construction workers.
The law, dubbed “the law that kills,” was so broad it prevented local ordinances that mandated things such as water breaks for construction workers.
States rights meant preserving slavery. Any other meaning is a retcon.
And even then it wasn’t really States’ Rights. The Fugitive Slave Act forced northern free states to treat escaped slaves as though they were “self-stolen property” rather than people who escaped from being slaves.
Conservatives are all about states’ rights only if it absences their goals. If a large federal government would advance their goals better (for example, continuing slavery or banning abortion), then they’ll ditch states’ rights quickly.