preview

Federal Government Power

Decent Essays
Open Document

States have always been sensitive about the amount of power they have; the federal government has always had to step carefully around the demands of the states. This has been true since the beginning of the United States. But both believe that they should have the most power when it comes to certain things. Individual states have different values and as such tend to implement different laws about certain topics; such states want their state laws to reflect these individual values instead of a blanket law from the federal government. States should have less power compared to the federal government when implementing laws dealing with topics such as the legalization of marijuana, gay marriage, and abortion. The federal government should be in …show more content…

A previously stated with medical marijuana and marriage equality, each state has individual views on abortion depending on their location and history. Such as, the South tends to have more conservative views and be Pro-Life while Northeasters tend to be more liberal and Pro-Choice. The federal government has had “no challenge to the federal law against partial-birth abortion on this ground ever went to the Supreme Court” (Ponnuru 2015). The federal government has already declared abortion legal through the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973. “Roe v. Wade (1973)… ruled that the states were forbidden from outlawing or regulating any aspect of abortion performed during the first trimester of pregnancy, could only enact abortion regulations reasonably related to maternal health in the second and third trimesters, and could enact abortion laws protecting the life of the fetus only in the third trimester. Even then, an exception had to be made to protect the life of the mother” (The federal government should have the power because it is unconstitutional for certain citizens of the United States to have more rights than other citizens just because of state lived in. In conclusion, the federal state should definitely have the power to make decisions on marijuana, abortion, and gay marriage. These are all things that fall under the umbrella of state law at the moment, but that should be changed. The varying states’ interests and laws keep peoples’ full rights out of their hands. In order to keep the United States’ promise of equal rights and protections under the law, the U.S. needs to take control of these three controversial

Get Access