A US doctrine holding that a state had the right to nullify a federal law within its own territory. The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798–99 asserted the right of each state to judge whether acts of the federal government were constitutional. The nullification theory was fully developed in South Carolina, especially by John Calhoun, in response to the high protective tariffs of 1828 and 1832. South Carolina’s Ordinance of Nullification in 1833 prohibited the collection of tariff duties in the state, and asserted that the use of force by the federal government would justify secession. Although this ordinance was repealed after the passing of new federal legislation in the same year, the sentiments behind nullification remained latent in Southern politics, and were to emerge again in the secession crisis prior to the American Civil War.