Mike Maharrey
For some reason, some conservative commentators keep propagating the historical lie that James Madison “rejected nullification.” James Madison did no such thing.
Even while opposing a bastardized proposal for nullification created out of thin air in South Carolina, he still supported nullification as a “natural right.”
SOUTH CAROLINA
In Madison’s “notes on nullification” during the later days of his life, he explicity rejected a very specific doctrine of nullification proposed by South Carolina. But during the same time period, he refered to “nullification…as a natural right”
Madison’s arguments against this doctrine are hard to dispute. Here’s what he wrote: