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State Government Vs Federal Government

Decent Essays

Introduction
“Our constitutional structure is conventionally depicted two-dimensionally: horizontally, power is dispersed among the federal branches; and vertically, power is dispersed between the federal and state governments.”(179, Rubenstein) Both the federal and state government are very influential in different areas. Each level of government has it’s own set of powers and responsibilities. The federal government takes on a lot of these responsibilities and between the two, is the more superior level of government. Whatever tasks and activities that the federal government does not take control of, is left to the state and local governments to handle. Nonetheless, the federal and state government are relatively alike in many ways. For …show more content…

For instance, during the Great Depression the economy was at an all time low and there were different problems spiraling out of control. The domino effect of the economy and stock markets being down caused a very high rate of unemployment. Since unemployment was so high there were a lot of people who fell into poverty. In need of some kind of change, the president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, created the Social Security Act. This act was created to assist and protect citizens who were in need during this where the unemployment rate was at its highest and poverty had struck millions. Often times these people were elderly, or they had recently lost a member of their family that may have been the person that usually provided for them or they were just simply unemployed. This kind of government assistance impacted so many lives. Later, unemployment rates and stock markets proved that because of the New Deal approaches like the Social Security Act, there was a decreased amount of people who were in need compared to the amount there was before the act was created (The Great …show more content…

People not only have to follow state laws but they also have to follow the federal ones. Sometimes this can cause certain jurisdiction to be ruled for many different crimes. There have been many cases where someone follows one or the other and there are consequences for all offenses. A specific example of the kind of confliction that can take place in the jurisdiction of court cases is the Mapp v. Ohio case of 1961. Ohio policeman went into a woman named Dollree Mapp’s house and told her that they were looking for a specific criminal who had reported to have some sort of bomb. They showed her what they said was a warrant, which turned out not to be and proceeded to search her home. The “criminal” wasn’t found but there were other incriminating things found inside the house that were pointing at Mapp. In Mapp’s home they found “explicit” items such as photographs, and books. Having things like this at the time in Ohio meant that Mapp violated a state law. Yet, even though she may have violated the state’s law, the Ohio policeman violated federal laws. They didn’t have an authentic warrant to search the home in the first place. Therefore, the judge in charge of the case later issued the verdict that they must all abide by the exclusionary rule and dismiss the incriminating evidence found in Mapp’s home. This entire case is a prime example of the Supremacy Clause in the constitution. This

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