Federal Supremacy Vs State Powers Essay

First, the Constitution guards us from tyranny by dividing powers between the central and state governments otherwise known as federalism. The Constitution expressly granted broad powers to the federal government, but not to the states. For instance, the Constitution includes the Necessary and Proper Clause, which allows Congress to make any law they deem appropriate to fulfill its duties. Instead of showing how much power that states have, the Constitution stressed what the states couldn 't do. The addition of the Bill of Rights, including the Tenth Amendment, helped to correct some of this imbalance. The Tenth Amendment reserved to the states or the people all powers either not specifically delegated to the national government or specifically denied to the states. This meant that the central and state

The American Constitution provides for a division of government powers between the federal and state governments, as well as provides solutions in an event of conflict between these two governments. The Supremacy Clause is derived through Constitutional Law and determines that the Constitution, Federal statutes, and United States treaties contain the “supreme law of the land”, creating the framework for the highest areas of law within the American legal system. Article VI, Section 2 of the United States Constitution contains The Supremacy Clause.

    The supremacy clause states that the United States Constitution, treaties, federal laws, and federal regulations are the supreme law of the land, if this didn’t exist then states would have more power over the federal government.

The relationship between States and their localities in many cases is strained. State government gives their local governments life, they create the laws for them. However, throughout history, state governments have not treated their localities as they suppose to. That is why the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) stated on the state-local relation “Legislators should place a higher priority on state-local issues than has been done in the past. The time has come to change their attitude toward local governments.” They want the state governments to see localities as partners in the federal system.

“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.” The purpose of the tenth Amendment is to define the division of power between the federal government and state governments.

In the United States Constitution it is stated that “No single section of the constitution deals with federalism. Instead, the provisions dividing power between the states and the national government appear throughout the constitution. Most of the constitution is concerned with establishing the powers of the national government. National power is also based on the supremacy clause of article VI, which says that the constitution and laws made in accordance with it are “the supreme law of the land”. This means that when national and state laws conflict, the national laws will be followed. Article I, section 9 limits the power of the national government over individuals. The tenth amendment the constitution also limits the state powers in Article I, section10 and denies the states certain powers” (Keeping the

The Supremacy Clause is a statement in the US Constitution that says that “the laws of the United States… shall be the supreme law of the land.” This was created to resolve any disputes among laws of the states and of the nation. The supremacy

Federalism is the division of power between national and state government. Federalism was supported by Doc A, an excerpt of The Federalist Papers; A series of essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in support of the Constitution. The following quote is an excerpt from Federalist Paper #51, written in 1778 by James Madison. “In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and the portion allotted to each subdivided among districts and separate departments.” In the aforementioned quote, James Madison is referring to the national state governments. Due to federalism, power is split between local and federal governments, preventing all power being controlled by one group. As a result, the two governments each have their own powers, which prevents total rule from a national or state government. Additionally, the power in these branches are split into three more branches. This prevents any one branch of government from having total power, which guards against

The Constitution lists all the powers states agreed to give to the federal government, and powers not on this list belong to the states or the people. The Founders knew it would be impossible to think of every tiny power the federal government would need, so the list they wrote in the Constitution was basic. To cover to details, they added what we call the “Necessary and Proper Clause”. This clause provides power to Congress to make laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers.

Federalism has played a large role in our government since the time that the Constitution was ratified. It originally gave the majority of the power to the states. As time went on, the national government gained more and more power. It used the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution to validate its acts, and the Supreme Court made decisions that strengthened the national government creating a more unified United States. Finally, the recent course of federalism has been to give powers back to the states.

In Document A, James Madison states, “The different governments will each control each other, at the same time that each will be controlled by itself.” What Madison is saying, is that the cCentral government has been given enough power to help any major needs from the country, and the sState government has been given enough power to help any specific needs from the states. For example, the cCentral government can regulate trade, conduct foreign relations, and declare war., Mmeanwhile the sState government can set up local governments, hold elections, and establish schools. James Madison’s idea of dividing the power between both governments, is also known as fFederalism. Federalism can also guard against tyranny, by the sharing of powers, or a compound government. Both cCentral and sState governments can tax, borrow money, and enforce laws. Using Federalism, this compound government can check each other, to make sure no one ruling has too much

The Constitution of the United States of America, and its powers within, is supposed to support the overall liberty of our nation. In 1798, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson sought to fight for the states right to nullify laws that they deemed unconstitutional. This fight was spurred by the Alien and Sedation Acts which were “considered unconstitutional because they infringed on the reserved powers of the states” (“Virginia and Kentucky resolutions,” n.d., para. 2). The language in these resolutions was later brought to light in 1832 in support of the nullification position taken by South Carolina pertaining to the high tariffs on imports that the government imposed. In the end, the fight for states’ rights was neutralized by the Force

The United States’ governmental system gradually moved from a confederal system of government to a federal system of government, as our country was being formed. Although the original outline of the federal system considered only two levels of government, our Founding Fathers had the foresight to extend our government to include multiple levels. This system of government provides for a check-and-balance type system. Included in this governmental organization is Judicial Review, a power of the United States Supreme Court. This so-called power simply allows the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether or not a law is constitutional. A closer look at Alexander Hamilton’s “The Federalist No. 78” will provide examples of the intended responsibility

National supremacy clause is Article VI in the Constitution says that federal law is the ultimate law of the land. This basically comes down to any federal law beats any conflicting state law. An example of utilizing the supremacy clause was McColluch vs. Maryland. Maryland tried to tax the Second Bank of the United States. When they did not pay, Maryland sued James McColluch for collection. His response was the tax was unconstitutional. The state court ruled in Maryland’s favor and he appealed to the United States Supreme Court which was ruled unconstitutional. This is an example of how state laws are defeated when they conflict with federal laws. The Articles of Confederation was framed so that the states held the power and kept it from a central government. However, in the Constitution, in Article VI, it gives federal law the ultimate decision if state law conflicts. There are reasons why the Article of Confederation was ultimately replaced by the United States Constitution that is still in effect today. The Articles of Confederation may have given the states too much power and not enough to central government.

In 1791, the tenth amendment was added to the Constitution. The tenth amendment states that "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." (Bailey 16) This