Tom Vail (@tomvail)

I like to explain the US Constitution as a contract. A contract has parties. The parties to a contract have both duties and obligations to each other, and rights, expectations from the other. In the case of the US Constitution, the states are the parties to the contract. The federal government is the object of the contract, not a party. How can the object of a contract be superior to the parties that created the contract? The states, parties to the contract, represent the citizens of the state.