Final answer:
Powers not listed in the U.S. Constitution as belonging to the federal government nor denied to the states are reserved for the states or the people, as specified by the Tenth Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights. The correct option is C.
Step-by-step explanation:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
This principle is established by the Tenth Amendment in the Bill of Rights and ensures that the national government does not centralize all powers, but rather, certain powers are reserved for the state governments or for the people.
These are known as reserved powers. The constitution distinguishes several types of powers including enumerated powers, implied powers, concurrent powers, and the reserved powers.
The Anti-Federalists advocated for these reserved powers to protect the states' autonomy against a potentially overpowering national government.
Their efforts resulted in the addition of the Tenth Amendment to ensure that any powers neither delegated to the national government nor explicitly denied to the states fall under the jurisdiction of the states or the people.
This system of assigning powers is essential to the federalist structure of the government of the United States. The correct option is C.