Individual (civil) rights are always more important than States Rights. States Rights must stop at the point where any State obstructs or diverges from the core principals of the Constitution and the Bill Of Rights. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Equal Protection Under the Law.

Constitutionally, the precedent is well established that civil rights cannot be left for individual states to decide. States Rights arguments were instrumental in the Civil War. The same arguments were made to appose Women’s Suffrage, racial equality, voting rights, interracial marriage and virtually every other piece of civil rights legislation.

Interpretation of these principals changes over time, and those changes are inevitably controversial. But eventually every state must get on board. If not, it is not usually the Federal Government as some oppressive entity that sets the new standard, but the Supreme Court.

Someone files a suit in the state where they feel their constitutional rights are violated. If the case reaches the Supreme Court, the state’s right to discriminate against an individual may be usurped, and should be. This is the primary function of the Supreme Court.

The argument that States Rights should be absolute is unsustainable. Granting that, it is up to us as individuals, and as a nation to define the parameters. My argument here is that Civil Rights, having been granted, according to our founding principals, by “Our Creator”, are the just purview of the Federal Government, primarily through the body of our Supreme Court.

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