Every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact (casus non faederis) to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits. Without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them.
Interpretation
States have the inherent right to nullify unauthorized power imposed on them.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the principle that states hold an intrinsic authority to reject any overreach of power by external entities within their jurisdiction. Jefferson argues that without this right of nullification, states would be subjected to the arbitrary will of those who claim authority over them, undermining their autonomy and self-governance.
In practice
During a political debate about state sovereignty, this quote can be used to argue for the importance of state rights.
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
We must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.
A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further.
If by the liberty of the press were understood merely the liberty of discussing the propriety of public measures and political opinions, let us have as much of it as you please: But if it means the liberty of affronting, calumniating and defaming one another, I, for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it, whenever our legislators shall please so to alter the law and shall chearfully consent to exchange my liberty of abusing others for the privilege of not being abused myself.
The absence of flaw in beauty is itself a flaw.
We're going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones.
I am still raw. I say I may be back. You know what lies are for. Even in your Zen heaven we shan't meet.
The greater the diversity, the greater the perfection.
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