Mackenzie Rosman!

Mackenzie Lyn Rosman (born December 28, 1989) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Ruthie Camden on The WB's long-running 7th Heaven.

Personal life
Rosman was born in Charleston, South Carolina.
She currently resides in West Hollywood, California. She also had an older stepsister, Katelyn Salmont (1986-2008).
Outside of acting Rosman enjoys animals, especially horses, of which she owns many. She is a competitive equestrian show jumper and rides in jumping competitions using her horse Mentos Junior. Rosman has Cherokee Indian roots.
Rosman is an active supporter of fundraising for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and wishes to educate the public about the need for organ donation. Mackenzie's stepsister, Katelyn Salmont, lived with Cystic fibrosis and in late 2005, Salmont underwent a successful double lung-transplant. Sadly Katelyn died from Pneumonia and Cystic fibrosis on Christmas 2008. Her stepfather Randy donated one organ. Both girls were featured in Teen People's "20 Teens Who Will Change the World". 7th Heaven produced a special episode about cystic fibrosis entitled "Back in the Saddle Again" which featured Salmont as herself, and Rosman and Salmont rode horses together, as they do at home. In 2005, 7th Heaven again brought Salmont on the show, post-transplant, which gave her a chance to explain about the new life she had been given in the episode entitled "X-Mas". Rosman also supports Childhelp Inc. and is an ambassador for the organization, which helps severely abused children. Rosman is also the national honorary chairman for CureFinders, a school fund-raising program to help fund the search for a cure for cystic fibrosis.
Rosman graduated from Valencia High School in late May 2007.

Career
In 1996, she got the part of Ruthie Camden on 7th Heaven by personally greeting each person in the room by a handshake during her audition. In addition to her role on 7th Heaven, Rosman appeared in the independent film Gideon, starring Christopher Lambert, Charlton Heston and Shelley Winters. She has appeared in numerous television commercials starting at age four including a Tuff's Diaper commercial and a Nike shoe commercial. Her film roles have included JonBenét Ramsey in Getting Away with Murder: The JonBenét Ramsey Mystery, and Molly MacLemore in Gideon.
Rosman is also starring in the new Edgar Allan Poe film, known as Edgar Allan Poe's Ligeia, in which she will play the role of Loreli. Her latest film role has been Jill in the new horror movie, Fading of the Cries. And her next film role is Roslyn Price in Socio.

Awards and nominations
1997: Best Performance in a TV Comedy/Drama - Supporting Young Actress Age Ten or Under (7th Heaven) - Nominated.
1998: Best Performance in a TV Drama Series - Supporting Young Actress (7th Heaven) - Nominated.
1999: Best Performance in a TV Series - Young Ensemble (7th Heaven) - Nominated (with Beverley Mitchell, Barry Watson, Jessica Biel and David Gallagher).
2002: Best Performance in a TV Drama Series - Supporting Young Actress (7th Heaven) - Nominated.
2004: Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) - Supporting Young Actress (7th Heaven) - Nominated.
2007: Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) - Supporting Young Actress (7th Heaven) - Nominated.

Mary Louise Parker

Mary-Louise Parker (born August 2, 1964) is an American Tony-, Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actress. Some of her better known works include Fried Green Tomatoes, Boys on the Side, Proof, The West Wing, Angels in America, and her current lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds portraying Nancy Botwin.

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Biography

Early life and 1980s
Parker was born in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Her mother was Swedish and her father was a judge and served in the U.S. Army. Parker majored in drama at the North Carolina School of the Arts. She then got her start in a bit part on the soap opera Ryan's Hope. In the late 1980s, Parker moved to New York, where she got a job measuring feet at ECCO. After a few minor roles, she made her Broadway debut in a 1990 production of Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss, playing the lead role of Rita. She won the Clarence Derwent Award for her performance and was nominated for a Tony Award. Parker also briefly dated her co-star Timothy Hutton during this time.

That same year, Parker was noticed by critics when she appeared in the movie adaptation of another Lucas play, Longtime Companion, one of the first movies to confront AIDS in the public arena. This role was followed by her appearance in 1991's Grand Canyon, which also starred Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard and Kevin Kline. Parker's next film was Fried Green Tomatoes, alongside Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kathy Bates and Cicely Tyson.

1990s
Parker maintained a strong theater presence in the early 1990s, but also built her reputation on the big screen, starring with Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones in The Client (1994); with John Cusack in Bullets Over Broadway (1994); and with Drew Barrymore and Whoopi Goldberg in Boys on the Side (1995), as a woman with AIDS. Her next role was in a movie adaptation of yet another Craig Lucas play, Reckless (1995), alongside Mia Farrow, followed by Jane Campion's The Portrait of a Lady (1996), which also starred Nicole Kidman, Viggo Mortensen, Christian Bale, John Malkovich and Barbara Hershey. In addition, she appeared alongside Matthew Modine in Tim Hunter's The Maker (1997).

Parker's theater career continued when she appeared in Paula Vogel's 1997 critical smash How I Learned To Drive, with David Morse. After several independent film releases, she appeared in Let The Devil Wear Black and then a much-lauded[citation needed] role in The Five Senses (1999).

2001 – 2003
In 2001, Parker appeared alongside Larry Bryggman in David Auburn's Proof on Broadway, for which she won a Tony Award. However, Parker again lost out when the play was made into a film and the role was given to Gwyneth Paltrow. During this period, she left the theater for three years to look for other roles: among them, Red Dragon and Pipe Dream (2002).
Next was a guest role on the NBC drama, The West Wing, as women's rights activist Amelia "Amy" Gardner, which soon became a recurring role as a love interest for Deputy Chief of Staff Joshua Lyman. For this role, Parker was nominated for both an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. During the fifth season, however, Parker became pregnant and her character was written out of the series after appearing in four episodes. She later reappeared in the seventh and final season of the show, hired to a post in the Santos White House as Director of Legislative Affairs.

On December 7, 2003, HBO aired an epic six-and-a-half hour adaptation of Tony Kushner's acclaimed Broadway play Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols. The miniseries — about a group of lost souls in New York during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s — was hailed with international critical acclaim. Parker played Harper Pitt, the Mormon Valium-addicted wife of a closeted lawyer. For her performance, Parker received Golden Globe and Emmy awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries.

2004 – 2006
In 2004, Parker appeared in the comedy Saved!, and a TV movie called Miracle Run, based on the true story of a mother of two sons with autism, as well as appearing in Craig Lucas' Reckless on Broadway. Parker took the lead role that had been Mia Farrow's on screen. The production, directed by Mark Brokaw, earned Parker another nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actress in 2005.

Parker returned to The West Wing in several guest appearances in 2005 and 2006, the show's final season, portraying the Director of Legislative Affairs under the President-elect Matt Santos.
In 2005, Parker took on the lead role in the television series Weeds, a Showtime comedy-drama. Parker's character, Nancy Botwin, is a suburban mother who, following the death of her husband, decides to sell marijuana to make money, while also attempting to maintain her community reputation. She stars alongside Kevin Nealon, Elizabeth Perkins, her Saved! co-star Martin Donovan, and her Angels in America co-star Justin Kirk. The show is currently in its fourth season, with two more confirmed by Showtime, to air in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
In November 2005, Parker was honored with an exhibition of her career at Boston University, where memorabilia from her career were donated to the University's library. Parker received the 2006 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy, given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, for her lead role in Weeds. In that category, she defeated the four leads of Desperate Housewives. She dedicated the award to the late John Spencer, best known for his work as Leo McGarry on The West Wing. After receiving the award, Parker stated: "I'm really in favor of legalizing marijuana. I don't think it's that controversial."

2007 – 2009
In March 2007, Parker played the lead role in the TV film The Robber Bride. Her next role, Zerelda Mimms, in the Andrew Dominik film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, opened in cinemas in September 2007. Parker appeared alongside Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell and Garret Dillahunt. In August 2007, Parker continued her role in the third season of Weeds. In July 2007, Parker was nominated for two Emmy Awards, one for Lead Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie for playing Zenia Arden in The Robber Bride and the other for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Weeds.

In August 2007, she posed nude for an ad for the third season of Weeds. In the ad, she appears as Eve in the Garden of Eden, with a snake draped around her body and a cannabis leaf behind her ear. In 2008, she was naked on screen several times during the show's fourth season.
On November 9, 2007, Parker was honored as the Entertainer of the Year by Out Magazine at the Out 100 Awards, which were celebrated in New York City.

Parker appeared in 2008's The Spiderwick Chronicles and in off-Broadway's Playwrights Horizons in the New York premiere of Dead Man's Cell Phone, a new play by Sarah Ruhl, alongside Drama Desk Award Winner Kathleen Chalfant.

She is currently filming the Donna Vermeer film Les Passages alongside Julie Delpy. Following this, she will return to work on the fifth season of Weeds. In the beginning of 2009, Parker will take the lead role in the upcoming revival of the play Hedda Gabler.

Personal life
On January 7, 2004, Parker gave birth to her first child, William Atticus Parker. The boy's father is actor Billy Crudup, whom Parker met when they co-starred in a 1996 revival of the William Inge play Bus Stop. After nearly eight years together, the couple split when the actress was seven months pregnant. There was a negative response to this because shortly after, Crudup openly admitted that he was dating actress Claire Danes, whom he met on the set of Stage Beauty. Crudup denies the rumor that the breakup was caused by Danes.
Parker has also dated Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows (with whom she remains close friends) and Timothy Hutton.

In December 2006, Parker began dating actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, whom she met on the set of Weeds. In March 2007, Parker stated that the relationship was "going great." The two briefly split in June 2007, but later reconciled. On February 12, 2008, Parker and Morgan announced their engagement only to break up again in April 2008.
In September 2007, Parker adopted a baby girl, Caroline "Ash" Aberash Parker, from Ethiopia.

Source: Wikipedia.Org

Hannah Montana

Hannah Montana is an Emmy Award-nominated American television series, which debuted on March 24, 2006 on Disney Channel. The series focuses on a girl who lives a double life as an average teenage school girl named Miley Stewart (played by Miley Cyrus) by day and a famous pop singer named Hannah Montana by night, concealing her real identity from the public, other than her close friends and family.

On April 9, 2008, it was announced that Hannah Montana would return for a third season in 2008 and production started on August 4, 2008. Season 3 premiered on November 2, 2008, and is still filming. Hannah Montana: The Movie was released in theaters on April 10, 2009.

Production

Michael Poryes, who is credited as co-creator, also co-created the hit Disney Channel Original Series That's So Raven. The show is produced by It's a Laugh Productions, Inc., in association with Disney. It is filmed at Tribune Studios in Hollywood, California. The series premiere scored record ratings for Disney Channel: 5.4 million viewers, a response "beyond our wildest expectations," according to the president of Disney Channel Entertainment.

The original idea for this show was based on the That's So Raven episode "Goin' Hollywood", which was supposed to be the pilot episode for a sitcom called Better Days, in which a child star of a popular TV show of the same name was to try her hand at going to a normal school. The episode "New Kid in School" has the basic premise as that aforementioned episode. Other names considered for the title were The Secret Life of Zoe Stewart (discarded as too similar to Zoey 101 on Nickelodeon)[citation needed], The Popstar Life!, and Alexis Texas. Former American Juniors finalist Jordan McCoy and pop and R&B singer JoJo (who rejected the role) were considered for the role of Zoe Stewart. Miley Cyrus originally auditioned for the role of the "best friend" Lilly Romero, later changed to Lilly Truscott, but they thought she would be better for the main character, so she tried out for Zoe Stewart/Hannah Montana. Zoe Stewart was later changed to Chloe Stewart, which was eventually changed to Miley when she got the part. The names of Hannah Montana were changed a few times. Three of the previous names were Anna Cabana, Samantha York, and Alexis Texas.

In December 2006, Disney announced plans to release Hannah Montana products, including: clothing, jewellery, apparel, and dolls, at select stores. Play Along Toys released the Hannah Montana fashion dolls, singing dolls and Miley Stewart doll, and other merchandise in August 2007. More Hannah dolls were released in November, along with Oliver, Lilly, and later Jake Ryan dolls. They became one of the most popular Christmas toys in 2007. Hannah Montana is signed for at least one more season according to Disney Channel. Filming for the second season started in December. The new season started in April, 2007, in which she is in high school.As stated by Jason Earles at the launch of the High School Musical 2 Extended Edition DVD, filming of the second season has finished.

By February 2008, the Hannah Montana franchise had become so important that Disney convened an "80-person, all-platform international meeting to discuss Hannah Montana's future." All Disney business segments were represented at the meeting.

Popularity
In addition to the high ratings of the TV series, concerts for Hannah Montana have also been exceedingly popular. Tickets for every concert sell out, with some later being scalped for thousands of dollars. The shows attract much attention, with an example being the attendance of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich who later admitted to having watched every episode.

Opening sequence
The theme song for Hannah Montana is "The Best of Both Worlds" written by Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil, produced by Gerrard and performed by Miley Cyrus (as Hannah Montana). John Carta, who also composes the music cues to signify scene changes and commercial breaks, composed the music for the song. The song's lyrics describe the basic premise of the television series.

The full-length version, which is 2 minutes, 54 seconds in length, was included on the show's soundtrack, released in October 2006. For the TV version of the theme, which lasts only 50 seconds, only the first two stanzas and the last two were used.

"Just Like You" and "The Other Side of Me" were originally tested for the opening theme song, before "Best of Both Worlds" was chosen as the theme. Stage and features episode clips of each cast member when each cast member's name appears. Each cast member's name is "wiped" on the screen in a marquee-light-style. The sequence then switches to full-screen episode clips (most of the clips used in the Season One version of the sequence were of the early produced episodes) with the creator's names appearing in the second-to-last clip. The show's title logo design appears at the beginning, and again at the end, of the sequence (the latter portion as with most other portions of the sequence on the "concert stage" feature Cyrus as her character Hannah Montana).

In Season 3, a new version of the opening credits were used. It features Miley as herself and Hannah Montana in a Times Square-like setting. The names of the actors and actresses and clips from the show appear in a sort-of marquee board and it features Hannah Montana with her new wig and clothes style. The song playing is the new version of The Best of Both Worlds.

Lawsuit
On August 23, 2007, Buddy Sheffield, a comedy writer who wrote for The Smothers Brothers Show, The Dolly Parton Show, and In Living Color, sued Disney over Hannah Montana alleging that he originally came up with the idea for Hannah Montana but was never compensated by Disney. The lawsuit claims breach of contract, breach of confidence, unfair competition and unjust enrichment. In the lawsuit, Sheffield claims that he pitched an idea for a TV series with the name of "Rock and Roland" to Disney Channel in 2001 with the plot of a junior high student who lived a secret double life as a rock star. The lawsuit claims that Disney Channel executives at first liked the idea but passed on the series. Sheffield claims that he deserves a share of the revenue generated by Hannah Montana.

Films

Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert
Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert is a musical documentary film from Walt Disney Pictures presented in Disney Digital 3-D. The limited release was intended to be for one week, February 1-7, 2008 in the US and Canada with release in other countries later on, but was extended for viewing as long as theaters wanted. Disney recently announced the concert was filmed in several cities to be theatrically released upon the US in February and internationally throughout the month. The film uses 3-D glasses.

The opening weekend, February 1-3, 2008, the movie had gross revenue of $29 million. Ticket prices were as high as $15, at least 50% higher than most regular movie tickets in 2008. It was the number one movie of the weekend, more than doubling the receipts of the number two movie, "The Eye". Opening in only 638 theaters, it set a record of over $42,000 per theater. It also set a record for the highest revenue for a 3-D movie for one weekend. Finally, it set a record for gross revenue for a Super Bowl weekend.

Hannah Montana: The Movie
Hannah Montana: The Movie has been confirmed by many of the stars from the show. It will not be a Disney Channel Original Movie, but will instead follow in the steps of the Lizzie McGuire series, which is a feature-length film released in cinemas. Filming was scheduled to take place May 2008, and should be released on April 10, 2009. The visuals are more subdued and Miley’s wardrobe is a little more demure—meaning there's less neon and more country girl class. All your favorite characters are back, but everyone seems to have grown up a bit—maybe it’s something in the water down South. Oprah Winfrey also confirmed on her show on November 21, 2007 that a film was in the works. Cyrus stated that the movie might be her last as Hannah Montana due to the film's resolution. "I don't know if I would do another (Hannah Montana) film, but I would love to do another season," said Cyrus.

Nominations and awards

• 2007 Creative Arts Emmy - Outstanding Children's Program (Nominated)
• Hannah Montana was up against two other Disney Channel shows, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and That's So Raven, but lost to a Nick News special, Private Worlds: Kids and Autism.
• 2007 Winner of the "Choice TV Show: Comedy" for the Teen Choice Awards
  Winner of the 2006-2007 Golden Icon Award (presented by Travolta Family Entertainment) for "Best New Comedy".
• Winner of the Bafta Kids Vote 2008 at Bafta Children's Awards 2008, the only award voted for by the British public .

Source: Wikipedia.org

Scott Podsednik

Scott Eric Podsednik (born March 18, 1976 in West, Texas) is a Major League Baseball outfielder with the Chicago White Sox organization. Podsednik led the major leagues in stolen bases in 2004 with 70. In 2005, Podsednik finished second in the American League in stolen bases with 59 (behind Chone Figgins' 62), despite missing several games due to injury. However, because he led Major League Baseball in steals for all of the first half of the 2005 season, he was voted by fans into the last roster spot as an All-Star selection, the first of his career. Although he played in the All-Star Game in Detroit, he saw only defensive time and did not get a chance to bat.

Professional career

Minor leagues
Podsednik was drafted out of West High School in the 3rd round, 85th overall, in the 1994 Major League Baseball Draft by the Texas Rangers. For the next 8 years, he would only play on minor league clubs, dealing with minor nagging injuries along the way. While his play was not stellar initially, he showed gradual improvement until he was promoted to Texas' Double-A team, the Frisco RoughRiders. Here, he began to struggle so much as to be demoted back to the Rangers organization's rookie club in 1999, but he immediately responded by hitting .412 with 5 RBI in just 5 games. After being recalled back to Frisco for the remainder of that season and the 2000 season, the Rangers gave up on him as a future prospect, and he then moved to the Seattle Mariners organization.

Seattle immediately placed Podsednik at the Triple-A level, where he hit .564, good enough for his first promotion to a major league team in September, 2001. He was mostly used in a pinch-running role or as a late defensive replacement. In his first career major league at-bat, he hit a bases loaded triple.

In 2002, Podsednik played mostly at Triple-A Tacoma, but was activated for 14 Major League games, hitting his first major-league home run during that time.
After the 2002 season, Podsednik was acquired by the Milwaukee Brewers organization from Seattle for $20,000. In Milwaukee, Podsednik was finally given a fair chance to become a Major League regular, and he would take advantage in 2003. Podsednik surprised many people by compiling a .314 batting average, 43 stolen bases, 100 runs scored, 175 hits, 29 doubles, eight triples, nine home runs, 58 runs batted in, 56 walks and a .379 on-base percentage for the Brewers, even though he was not inserted permanently into the starting lineup until mid-May.
Podsednik finished second to the Florida Marlins' Dontrelle Willis in the official Rookie of the Year balloting. Despite sharing comparable success, some thought Podsednik's chances for winning the award were irreparably hurt by his playing for a perennial also-ran and by his relative low profile. This was in contrast to Willis, who received much more national exposure and played in a larger Miami market for a team that would eventually win the World Series. Furthermore, unlike Podsednik, who had been a relatively obscure career minor leaguer, Willis had been a much-hyped future superstar, going back to his days in the Chicago Cubs minor league system.

Major leagues
The 2004 season saw Podsednik's average drop to .244, partly due to pressure on him and his teammates to produce runs on an offensively lethargic Brewers team. Despite his more limited time on base, Podsednik led the league with 70 stolen bases, an astounding number for a sub-.250 hitter.

In December 2004, the Chicago White Sox realized Podsednik's ability and felt he was perfect for the direction they were going, as he batted .290, led the league in infield hits, and stole third base on 18 out of 19 attempts. A well rounded yet below average offensive White Sox team enabled Podsednik to concentrate on his strengths — getting on base, and using his speed, rather than hitting for power and driving in runs himself. He quickly became a huge fan favorite in Chicago, and every stolen base he attempted seemed to bring as much excitement as does an RBI base hit; indeed, the "Podsednik effect" was one of the factors in the White Sox' performance, much commented on, unnerving pitchers who knew they had to watch over their shoulder constantly. He was selected to his first All-Star game in 2005 via the MLB's All-Star Final Vote.

On June 23, 2006, Podsednik hit his first career grand slam off Andy Pettite, another Houston Astros pitcher. Phil Garner, manager of the Astros when they were swept by the White Sox in the 2005 World Series and still when Podsednik hit his first grand slam in 2006, said "It's tough to pitch to this guy. He hits a home run once in a blue moon or whenever he faces the Astros."

On November 20, 2007, Podsednik was designated for assignment and the White Sox had 10 days to trade, waive, release, or outright him to the minors. Podsednik was released on November 28, 2007. On February 5, 2008, he signed a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training with the Colorado Rockies. A free agent at the end of the season, he re-signed with the Rockies on January 14, 2009. On April 1, 2009, Podsednik was released.

On April 14, 2009, Podsednik agreed to return to the White Sox on a minor-league deal.

Curious records
On October 4, 2005, during Game 1 of the American League Division Playoff Series against the Boston Red Sox, Podsednik became only the second player in Major League Baseball history to hit a home run in a post-season game after going without any homers in the regular season with at least 500 or more at bats. Coincidentally, the man he joins in this historical category is Lance Johnson, another White Sox player who was the first to accomplish the feat in the 1993 American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays. Later, on October 23, 2005, during Game 2 of the World Series against the Houston Astros, Podsednik hit a solo homer in the bottom of the 9th off Astros closer Brad Lidge to win the game thus making Podsednik the only player in history to hit more than one home run in the post-season after going a full season with none.

In Game 3 of the same 2005 Series, as the lead-off batter he also became the player with the most at-bats in a single series game (8).

Personal

He is married to former Playboy playmate Lisa Dergan.
He made an appearance on the Lance Armstrong-Sheryl Crow episode of Saturday Night Live, the first one after the 2005 World Series.

Source: Wikipedia.Org

Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Tenth Amendment (Amendment X) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. The Tenth Amendment restates the Constitution's principle of Federalism by providing that powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states or the people.

Text
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

History and case law
The Tenth Amendment is similar to an earlier provision of the Articles of Confederation: "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled." After the Constitution was ratified, some wanted to add a similar amendment limiting the federal government to powers "expressly" delegated, which would have denied implied powers. However, the word "expressly" ultimately did not appear in the Tenth Amendment as ratified, and therefore the Tenth Amendment did not amend the Necessary and Proper Clause.

The Tenth Amendment, which makes explicit the idea that the federal government is limited only to the powers granted in the Constitution is generally recognized to be a truism. In United States v. Sprague (1931) the Supreme Court noted that the amendment "added nothing to the [Constitution] as originally ratified."

From time to time states and local governments have attempted to assert exemption from various federal regulations, especially in the areas of labor and environmental controls, using the Tenth Amendment as a basis for their claim. An often-repeated quote, from United States v. Darby, 312 U.S. 100, 124 (1941), reads as follows:

The amendment states but a truism that all is retained which has not been surrendered. There is nothing in the history of its adoption to suggest that
it was more than declaratory of the relationship between the national and state governments as it had been established by the Constitution before the amendment or that its purpose was other than to allay fears that the new national government might seek to exercise powers not granted, and that the states might not be able to exercise fully their reserved powers.

Interpretations
Interpretations of the amendment can be divided into two camps. The first interpretation, as held by the Tenth Amendment Center, the Libertarian and Constitution Parties, and a few Republicans including Ron Paul and Jeff Flake, is that the Constitution does not grant the United States any power that it does not expressly mention. This has been used as the basis for such
court cases as Gonzales v. Raich, and for arguments in favor of repealing a large number of Federal laws, abolishing the Federal Reserve, and drastically slashing the Federal budget by 50% or more. It is also why amendments were necessary for the abolition of slavery and the
prohibition of alcohol - without said amendments, Congress did not have the authority to do those things. The contrary opinion is that the Constitution grants Congress the authority to do more or less anything that is not explicitly prohibited by the first eight amendments.

Forced participation or commandeering

As suggested above, the Supreme Court rarely declares laws unconstitutional for violating the Tenth Amendment. In the modern era, the Court has only done so where the federal government compels the states to enforce federal statutes. In 1992, in New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144 (1992), for only the second time in 55 years, the Supreme Court invalidated a portion of a federal law for violating the Tenth Amendment. The case challenged a portion of the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendments Act of 1985. The act provided three incentives for states to comply with statutory obligations to provide for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste. The first two incentives were monetary. The third, which was challenged in the case, obliged states to take title to any waste within their borders that was not disposed of prior to January 1, 1996, and made each state liable for all damages directly related to the waste. The Court, in a 6–3 decision, ruled that the imposition of that obligation on the states violated the Tenth Amendment. Justice O’Connor wrote that the federal government can encourage the states to adopt certain regulations through the spending power (i.e., by attaching conditions to the receipt of federal funds, see South Dakota v. Dole), or through the commerce power (by directly pre-empting state law). However, Congress cannot directly compel states to enforce federal regulations. In 1997, the Court again ruled that a federal act Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, violated the Tenth Amendment (Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997)). The act required state and local law enforcement officials to conduct background checks on persons attempting to purchase handguns. Justice Scalia, writing for the majority, applied New York v. United States to show that the law violated the Tenth Amendment. Since the act “forced participation of the State’s executive in the actual administration of a federal program,” it was unconstitutional.

Commerce clause

According to the Tenth Amendment, the government of the United States has the power to regulate only matters delegated to it by the Constitution. Other powers are reserved to the states, or to the people (and even the states cannot alienate some of these). The Commerce Clause is one of the Article 1 Section 8 powers specifically delegated to Congress and thus its interpretation is very important in determining the scope of federal legislative power.
In the twentieth century, complex economic challenges of the Great Depression triggered a reevaluation in both Congress and the Supreme Court of the use of Commerce Clause powers to maintain a strong national economy.

In Wickard v. Filburn (1942), in the context of the Second World War, the Court ruled that federal regulations of wheat production could constitutionally be applied to wheat grown for "home consumption" on a farm--that is, wheat grown to be fed to farm animals or otherwise consumed on the farm. The rationale was that a farmer's growing "his own wheat" can have a substantial cumulative effect on interstate commerce, because if all farmers were to exceed their production quotas, a significant amount of wheat would either not be sold on the market or would be bought from other producers. Hence, in the aggregate, if farmers were allowed to consume their own wheat, it would affect the interstate market in wheat.

In Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985), the Court changed the analytic framework to be applied in Tenth Amendment cases. Prior to the Garcia decision, the determination of whether there was state immunity from federal regulation turned on whether the state activity was "traditional" for or "integral" to the state government. The Court noted that this analysis was "unsound in principle and unworkable in practice," and rejected it without providing a replacement. The Court's holding declined to set any formula to provide guidance in future cases. Instead, it simply held "...we need go no further than to state that we perceive nothing in the overtime and minimum-wage requirements of the FLSA ... that is destructive of state sovereignty or violative of any constitutional provision." It left to future courts how best to determine when a particular federal regulation may be "destructive of state sovereignty or violative of any constitutional provision."

In United States v. Lopez 514 U.S. 549 (1995), a federal law mandating a "gun-free zone" on and around public school campuses was struck down because, the Supreme Court ruled, there was no clause in the Constitution authorizing it. This was the first modern Supreme Court opinion to limit the government's power under the Commerce Clause. The opinion did not mention the Tenth Amendment, and the Court's 1985 Garcia opinion remains the controlling authority on that subject.

Most recently, the Commerce Clause was cited in the 2005 decision Gonzales v. Raich. In this case, a California woman sued the Drug Enforcement Administration after her medical marijuana crop was seized and destroyed by Federal agents. Medical marijuana was explicitly made legal under California state law by Proposition 215; however, marijuana is prohibited at the federal level by the Controlled Substances Act. Even though the woman grew the marijuana strictly for her own consumption and never sold any, the Supreme Court stated that growing one's own marijuana affects the interstate market of marijuana, citing the Wickard v. Filburn decision. The theory was that the marijuana could enter the stream of interstate commerce, even if it clearly wasn't grown for that purpose and it was unlikely ever to happen. It therefore ruled that this practice may be regulated by the federal government under the authority of the Commerce Clause.

Federal funding

The federal system limits the ability of the federal government to use state governments as an instrumentality of the national government. Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997). However, where Congress has the power to implement programs, or to regulate, there are sound reasons for the national government to encourage States to become the instrumentalities of national policy, rather than to implement the program directly. One advantage is that state implementation of national programs places implementation in the hands of local officials who are closer to local circumstances. Another advantage is that implementation of federal programs at the state level tends to limit the growth of the national bureaucracy.

For this reason, Congress often seeks to exercise its powers by offering or encouraging the States to implement national programs consistent with national minimum standards. The mechanisms are discussed in the article on cooperative federalism. One example of the exercise of this device was to condition allocation of federal funding where certain state laws do not conform to federal guidelines. For example, federal educational funds may not be accepted without implementation of special education programs in compliance with IDEA. Similarly, the nationwide state 55 mph (90 km/h) speed limit, .08 legal blood alcohol limit, and the nationwide state 21-year drinking age were imposed through this method; the states would lose highway funding if they refused to pass such laws. See e.g. South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203 (1987).

Source: Wikipedia.Org