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Supremacy Clause
Cooper v. Aaron, a 1958 Supreme Court case that dealt with states' rights and the Tenth Amendment, came about when conflicts arose in direct response to the ruling of another landmark case, Brown v. Board of Education. In 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously decided on Brown v. Board of Education declaring racial segregation of children in public schools unconstitutional. Following the decision, the court ordered "district courts and school boards to proceed with desegregation 'with all deliberate speed'". In other words, the Court's decision not only ruled segregation as an unconstitutional and illegal practice, but also prompted all public schools to open its doors to black students and provide access to facilities to white and black students equally. This ruling quickly spurred upsetting conflicts between those trying to enforce the ruling and those refusing to abide by it.

Among those opposing the decision and all efforts of desegregation ordered by the Court was the Governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus. In Little Rock, Arkansas, a group of nine black students known as the "Little Rock Nine" was to attend the previously all-white Central High School under the school board's attempt to follow the order of Brown. However, the tension between the state legislature and the Governor versus the Supreme Court and the federal government became severe when Governor Faubus ordered the National Guard to prevent the nine black students from entering the high school and President Eisenhower responded by sending federal troops to escort them in. Because the Little Rock school board implementing the desegregation program fell under both the state and federal jurisdiction, it sought to alleviate itself from this distraught situation through legal means.

Five months after the integration crisis happened, the school board filed suit in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Arkansas requesting a two and a half year delay in implementing desegregation. Although the district court granted the relief, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed the district court's decision on August 18, 1958 and stayed its mandate pending appeal to the supreme Court. By this time, the incident had evolved into a national issue: it had become a debate on not only racism and segregation but also states' rights and the Tenth Amendment.

The Court, citing first, the Supremacy Clause of Article VI declaring the Constitution as the supreme law of the land and second, the Marbury v. Madison decision asserting the Court as the supreme interpreter of the Constitution as evidence of their superior authority, reaffirmed the decision of Brown and held that the states must abide by the Court's decisions despite their disagreement with them. Expectedly, many states' right advocates and state officials criticized the ruling as an attack on the Tenth Amendment that reserves the states' right to resist the implementation of federal law or the Federal Constitution. Moreover, they claimed the Court's decision on Cooper as being inconsistent with the constitutional vision of the Framers.

Though the historical and political background to the rise of Cooper v. Aaron was the issue of segregation, the outcome of it was largely a Tenth Amendment issue. Whether the supremacy clause that the Supreme Court used to enforce its authority on the states is a violation of the Tenth Amendment or not is still being debated.