The problem was that there is no such thing as 'state rights'only individual rights.
Those of us that believe so are a very small minority at FR, surprisingly enough.
Most here have surrendered to the idea that if you can get a State to enforce 'the rules', [as you would have them] its 'right'.
-- It's also the Constitution turned on its head.
That is because the South did a very good job in historical revisionism after the Civil War.
According to them, The war was not really about slavery but 'states rights'(war between the states etc)
Many conservatives accepted this as being 'gospel'and the civil rights movement (brought about in reaction to the Jim Crow laws) was yet an additional attack on the 'states'.
The South before the Civil War rejected the Declaration of Independence and its statement that áll men were created equal...ánd it was determined after the Civil War, to ignore it.
I would have to agree with that.
The problem is that too many, way too many, people in this country have come to believe that, "might makes right".
The institution of government should protect against that notion, not foster it as it has done for half a decade, or more.