The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (1798-1799), drafted secretly by Jefferson and Madison, declared that states could judge federal laws unconstitutional and nullify them, written in protest of the Federalists' Alien and Sedition Acts and laying the groundwork for later states' rights arguments.
The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions were political statements passed by those two state legislatures in 1798 and 1799. They argued that the Constitution was a compact among the states, so when the federal government overstepped its powers, states had the right to declare those laws void within their borders. Kentucky's version (secretly written by Thomas Jefferson) used the word "nullify." Virginia's version (secretly written by James Madison) used the softer term "interposition," meaning a state could step between its citizens and an unconstitutional federal law.
The immediate target was the Alien and Sedition Acts, Federalist laws that cracked down on immigrants and made criticizing the government a crime. Democratic-Republicans saw the Sedition Act as a direct attack on their party and on free speech, and the Resolutions were their counterattack. No other state signed on at the time, and the Resolutions never took legal effect. But the idea they planted, that states could check federal power themselves, kept resurfacing for the next sixty years.
This term lives in Topic 4.2 (The Rise of Political Parties and the Era of Jefferson) in Unit 4 and supports learning objective APUSH 4.2.A, which asks you to explain the causes and effects of policy debates in the early republic. The Resolutions are a perfect cause-and-effect case study. The cause was a partisan fight over the Alien and Sedition Acts and the limits of federal power (KC-4.1.I.A). The effect was a compact theory of the Constitution that directly clashed with the Supreme Court's later claim that federal law trumps state law (KC-4.1.I.B). For the exam, the Resolutions are your starting point for the states' rights argument, the thread that runs from 1798 through the Nullification Crisis all the way to secession in 1860.
Keep studying APUSH Unit 4
Alien and Sedition Acts (Unit 4)
The Resolutions don't exist without these laws. The Sedition Act criminalized criticism of the Adams administration, and Jefferson and Madison answered it with the Resolutions instead of going to court. You can't explain one without the other on an exam answer.
Nullification (Units 4-5)
South Carolina's nullification of the Tariff of 1828 during the 1832-33 Nullification Crisis was basically the Resolutions put into action. Calhoun lifted the compact theory straight from Jefferson and Madison, which makes this one of the cleanest continuity arguments in APUSH.
Democratic-Republican Party (Unit 4)
The Resolutions were a partisan weapon as much as a constitutional theory. They show the Democratic-Republicans defining themselves as the party of limited federal power against the Federalists, right as the first party system was hardening.
Supreme Court supremacy under Marshall (Unit 4)
The Resolutions claimed states get to decide what's constitutional. The Marshall Court said the opposite, establishing that the judiciary interprets the Constitution and federal law beats state law (KC-4.1.I.B). These two visions of who referees the Constitution collide all the way to the Civil War.
Multiple-choice questions typically pair an excerpt from the Resolutions (or the Alien and Sedition Acts) with a stem asking what the Resolutions argued or why they were significant. The right answer almost always involves states judging the constitutionality of federal laws; wrong answers tend to claim the Resolutions succeeded or were upheld by courts (they weren't). No released FRQ has used this term verbatim, but it's prime evidence for continuity-and-change essays on federalism and states' rights. A strong move on an LEQ or DBQ is connecting 1798 to 1832 to 1860, showing the nullification idea evolving from protest to crisis to secession.
The Resolutions (1798-99) proposed the theory that states could void federal laws; the Nullification Crisis was when South Carolina actually tried it against the Tariff of 1828. Easy way to keep them straight: Jefferson and Madison wrote the playbook, Calhoun and South Carolina ran the play thirty years later. Also note the targets differ. The Resolutions opposed the Alien and Sedition Acts; the crisis was about tariffs.
The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (1798-1799) argued that states could declare federal laws unconstitutional and nullify them, in direct response to the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Jefferson secretly wrote the Kentucky Resolution and Madison secretly wrote the Virginia Resolution, making them a Democratic-Republican attack on Federalist overreach.
The Resolutions rested on compact theory, the idea that the Constitution was an agreement among states, so states could judge when the federal government broke it.
No other state endorsed the Resolutions and they had no legal force, but the nullification idea resurfaced in the Nullification Crisis of 1832-33 and in secession arguments before the Civil War.
The Resolutions directly contradict the Marshall Court's position that the judiciary interprets the Constitution and that federal law takes precedence over state law (KC-4.1.I.B).
They were statements passed by the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures in 1798 and 1799 arguing that states could nullify federal laws they considered unconstitutional. Jefferson and Madison wrote them anonymously to protest the Alien and Sedition Acts.
No. No other state supported the Resolutions, and the Alien and Sedition Acts stayed in effect until they expired or were repealed after Jefferson won the election of 1800. The Resolutions mattered as an idea, not as a legal victory.
The Resolutions (1798-99) were the theory; the Nullification Crisis (1832-33) was the practice. South Carolina, led by Calhoun's ideas, actually declared the Tariff of 1828 null and void, borrowing the compact theory Jefferson and Madison had laid out decades earlier.
Thomas Jefferson wrote the Kentucky Resolution and James Madison wrote the Virginia Resolution, both anonymously, since Jefferson was sitting Vice President and openly attacking federal law would have been politically dangerous.
In 1798 the courts were dominated by Federalists, and judicial review hadn't been established yet (Marbury v. Madison came in 1803). State legislatures were the only venue Democratic-Republicans controlled, which is exactly why their argument made states the judges of constitutionality.