CTLawyer, thanks for confirming that I chose profession wisely! I definitely admit that my knowledge is limited to recent learning w/ high-school kids, where learning for the (online) test is often a higher priority than in-depth analysis, still
10th Amendment includes people:
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.
from wiki:
James Wilson of Pennsylvania, later argued that the act of enumerating the rights of the people would have been dangerous, because it would imply that rights not explicitly mentioned did not exist;[11] Hamilton echoed this point in Federalist No. 84
I am amending my statrement on Bill of Rights: several states ratified Constitution under condition of introducing Bill of Rights:
Massachusetts convention was angry and contentious .. impasse was resolved only when revolutionary heroes and leading Anti-Federalists Samuel Adams and John Hancock agreed to ratification on the condition that the convention also propose amendments ..Following Massachusetts’ lead, the Federalist minorities in both Virginia and New York were able to obtain ratification in convention by linking ratification to recommended amendments
I think we agree that Federal government got more power and States more restrictions over time. It is hard to draw a line. I think we all would be less comfortable if stated were still having their respective churches. Or maybe not – Jews would have all moved together to Delaware or New Hampshire and could have established our own Jewish state. But overall this centralization and unification reduces benefit from unique American feature – multiple states that have common culture, freedom of movement, and independent state powers. This creates competition between state powers and solves a lot of problems that plagues humanity from Shmuel and Roman periods on how to limit the state powers. The country will not be paralyzed for years about Presidential elections if the President would not be in charge of taxes, oil exploration, etc. Let each state do their own thing and let people move where they like.