The Tenth Amendment reserves powers to whom?

• A. The President
• B. The States or the People
• C. The Supreme Court
• D. The Federal Government

Answer: (B)

Federalism and how power is divided between national and state governments are being tested here. The Tenth Amendment says that any powers not given to the United States by the Constitution, and not forbidden to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the People. That means if a power isn’t listed as a national authority, it belongs to state governments or to individuals. So the correct idea is that those reserved powers reside with the States or the People.

This helps explain why the other options don’t fit: the President’s authority comes from the Constitution and relevant laws, not from a reserved-power clause; the Supreme Court’s job is to interpret laws, not to hold general reserved powers; and the Federal Government exercises only those powers expressly delegated to it or implied by the Constitution, while remaining limited by the Tenth Amendment.