This doctrine was exercised by Southern states only.
It stated that states kept the authority to define in which circumstances federal government exceeded its powers, declaring acts to be void and of no force in their jurisdiction, previously considered unconstitutional. Initially stated by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798–99, it was supported on the assertion that the Union was a compact of sovereign states, for instance, had the natural right to make such decisions.