Interposition, in the context of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, refers to an asserted right of U.S. states to protect their individual interests from federal violation or any abridgement of states' rights deemed by those states to be dangerous or unconstitutional. In the words of the Virginia Resolution of 1798, The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions were important political statements in favor of states rights written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1798. ... Federal courts Supreme Court Chief Justice Associate Justices Elections Presidential elections Midterm elections Political Parties Democratic Republican Minor parties State & Local government Governors Legislatures State Courts Counties, Cities, and Towns Other countries â€¢ Politics Portal • • A state of the United States is any one of the fifty subnational entities referred to... States rights refers to the idea that U.S. states possess certain rights and political powers in the politics of the United States and constitutional law. ...

That this Assembly doth explicitly and peremptorily declare, that it views the powers of the federal government, as resulting from the compact, to which the states are parties; as limited by the plain sense and intention of the instrument constituting the compact; as no further valid that they are authorized by the grants enumerated in that compact; and that in case of a deliberate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers, not granted by the said compact, the states who are parties thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the progress of the evil, and for maintaining within their respective limits, the authorities, rights and liberties appertaining to them.

By this statement, Madison asserts that state bodies are "duty bound to interpose" or stand between federal encroachment on the rights of a sovereign state. The procedural legal details of how this interposition is enacted is not explicit. The Virginia Resolution thus provides what is sometimes considered to be the more tempered Madisonian view to Jefferson's Kentucky Resolution that calls for [nullification]] of federal laws. It is often used in conjunction with nullification, which is said by its advocates to give states the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal law which that the state has deemed unconstitutional. The process of nullification may refer to: The Hartford Convention, in which New England Federalists considered secession from the United States of America. ... Constitutionality is the status of a law, procedure, or act being in accordance with the laws or guidelines contained in a constitution. ...

Interposition is now most often claimed to be a discredited doctrine with no legal basis, in light of the United States Constitution's Supremacy Clause^{[citation needed]}. This is said by advocates like Thomas Woods to beg the question of constitutionality: it is because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land that states are said to be within their rights to nullify or interpose federal laws that are deemed unconstitutional. In that case, the question over what authority the individual states have to interpret the Constitution may be more relevant to the discussion (see States' Rights). The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ... Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the United States Constitution is known as the Supremacy Clause: The Supremacy Clause establishes the Constitution, Federal Statutes, and U.S. treaties as the supreme law of the land. ... Thomas Woods Thomas E. Woods, Jr. ... States rights refers to the idea that U.S. states possess certain rights and political powers in the politics of the United States and constitutional law. ...

See also

• Sherman Booth, an example interposition from Wisconsin