nullification
4
9.6
- noun
- /ˌnʌlɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/
- Archaic
:
nulificación
- The debate over the nullification of federal laws highlights tensions between state and federal authority.
- jury nullification
- nullification power
- nullification crisis
Examples
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During the 1830s, South Carolina's nullification of federal tariffs sparked a significant conflict with the U.S. government.
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The law says that there is no such thing as jury nullification.
Blog text (31) -
What of his recent confrontation with South Carolina over the nullification issue?
Fiction book (1994) -
The founding fathers talked about jury nullification as a way to fight unjust laws and corrupt judges and prosecutors.
Blog text (11) -
The abolitionist movement of the 1830s unified white Georgians to a much greater degree than had nullification.
Academic text (2014) -
For now, it seems, even in often-surly AZ, Calhoun's nullification doctrines remain beyond the pale of acceptable constitutional politics.
Academic text (2014) -
Many historians consider the nullification crisis a pivotal moment in the history of states' rights in America.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Nullification in U.S. history was the claim that a state could say a federal law was 'no effect' inside its borders. The word uses null 'nothing', so this idea was a state trying to make a national law 'nothing', which is why it led to serious conflict with the federal government.