The Constitution
reserved powers
The Tenth Amendment's rule: powers not delegated to the federal government, nor forbidden to the states, are reserved to the states or the people.
In full
The Tenth Amendment states the constitutional default. From it flow the anti-commandeering cases: the federal government may regulate people directly and may attach conditions to money, but it cannot order state legislatures to legislate or conscript state officers to administer federal programs (New York v. United States, Printz v. United States).
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.