Ch 3 - Federalism

Most states amended their Constitution to give their larger local governments "home rule"

Home Rule is a guarantee that the States won't interfere various areas of local affairs. Without the home rule, the local government is always at the mercy of the state. For example, recently, some local governments passed laws raising the minimum wage, only to have the state government pass a law that preempt, or remove, that authority.

Exception to Full Faith and Credit

If the law is against the "strong public policy" of a state, then the state may not be obligated to recognize it. Marriage is a good topic for discussing how States have avoided Full Faith and Credit using this reasoning: 1. In 1952, 30 states prohibited interracial marriage even though it was allowed in other states. and they refused to recognize interracial marriage even if the marriage was performed in another state. Until recently, Same-sex marriage was in a similar situation.

Supremacy Clause

In addition to the Expressed and Implied Powers, the Constitution created the Supremacy Clause which made all national laws and treaties "the supreme Law of the land"

When States and Local government wouldn't follow through with the standard, sometimes Federal preemption occured

Preemption is when the federal government takes over areas of regulations formerly overseen by state and local government due to inconsistency with federal standards or regulations

Expressed Powers

Specific powers granted to the national government in the Constitution.

Implied Powers

Allows Congress to make all laws that is necessary in order to carry out its explicit powers. This implicit powers is exercised through the Necessary and proper clause.

Categorical Grants

Are the type of grants that is awarded only if the states agree to spend it for a particular purpose defined by the federal government

In some areas, States share Concurrent Powers with the national government.

Concurrent power means the State retain and share some power to regulate commerce and affect the currency. If there ever is a conflict between the State and Federal laws in the concurrent powers, the Federal law usually is favored due to Supremacy clause

Federalism

Division of powers and functions between the national and state government

Local government isn't mentioned in the Constitution

Local governments are created by the State Constitution. Therefore, local governments are subject to ultimate control by the states.

One way Framers sought to preserve the power of the State was through the 10th Amendment

The 10th Amendment states that any power not delegated to the national government are reserved for the States or the people. Unless powers are forbidden to the States. The anti-federalists pressed for the 10th amendment in order to keep the national government's power in check. The federalists agreed to add this since they believed it won't make much difference, since the Constitution already grants the national government expressed powers. 10th Amendment is also called "Reserved Powers Amendment" because it aims to reserve powers to the States

The Constitution creates an obligation among the states in order to maintain national unity

The States are obligated to recognize actions and decisions taken in other states as legal and proper in order to make the states less like independent nations, and more like components of a single nation

The growth of power of the national government formed from the Commerce Clause

The commerce clause would later form the basis for expansive federal government control over the economy.

Federalism is a flexible form of government

The first 140 years of this nation was dominated by State power. However, ever since the New Deal of 1930s, the national government gained more power. Over the years the states have asserted their powers, but then some event would happen such as 9/11 that would shift a lot of powers back to the national government to handle this time of crisis. And then power would flow back to the state again, and so forth. This illustrates the flexibility of Federalism where power is always shifting and flowing.

States have what is known as Police Power

The fundamental power that the states retain is that of coercion - which means they can coerce their state citizens in the name of the community in order to maintain law and order in the state. States have the power to regulate individuals' livelihoods because the framers determined the States are better suited to do this than the Federal government since the State government is closer to the people. The States have the power to develop and enforce criminal codes, administer health and safety rules, and regulate the family via marriage and divorce laws. These issues touch closely on state and local values, which is why the Federal government gave Police Powers to the State Government. The Police Power is the State's authority to regulate these fundamental matters.

Full Faith and Credit Clause

This clause expects the states to honor the "Public Acts, Records, and Judicial Proceedings" that take place in any other states. That means if a there is a restraining order placed on a man in NJ, NY is expected to enforce that order as if they had issued it.

The New Deal (The new national programs enacted by FDR to combat Depression) didn't take power away from the states, but instead directed the funds to the states with conditions of how to spend it

These were called Grants-In-Aid

Another clause, Privileges and Immunities Clause, seeks to promote national unity among the states

This clause states that citizens enjoying the privileges and immunities of one state should be entitled to similar treatment at another. This means that a state cannot discriminate someone from a different state, or give special better treatment to its own state citizens than foreign state citizens. Basically, all citizens regardless of what state they are from, should be treated similarly.

Dual Federalism : The first 140 years of America dominated by state power

This form of government system was prevalent from 1789-1937 where most fundamental governmental powers were shared between the national and state government. This is also called the Traditional System, because it was the form of government for the first 140 years of USA. During Dual Federalism, the state government had done most of the fundamental governing, with the national and local government doing less governing.

National government began attempting to create more uniformity between the states so there aren't drastic policy or regulation differences between each states

This was called Regulated Federalism. Where national government began setting national standard and guidelines for all states to follow, such as education standard, environmental standard and so forth

There are 2 ways in which the government can organize power

Unitary system: Central government has way more power than lower level governments and lower level governments have almost little independent power. France, back in the day, had a central government that was involved in little details of local government and every aspect of lower level government that the minister of education can look at his watch and know what every students in France is learning because the central government set the school curriculum. Federal system: Central government shares power and functions with lower level governments

America moved away from Dual Federalism where the functions of national and state governments were clear, to Cooperative Federalism where intergovernmental operation and sharing have blurred the lines of where the central government power starts and ends.

We went from Layer Cake Federalism where the powers between the federal and state were clear cut. To Marble Cake Federalism where the powers seemed to be mixed together and shared together, not clearly knowing the limits of central government.

The great Depression was the start of the national government rise in power: Depression resulted in the New Deal

When Depression hit, the State and local governments were unable to keep up with helping the poor. They didn't have the capacity. So everyone demanded the federal government to step in. When FDR was elected, he enacted the New Deal that increased federal government's intervention into the lives of the people to help with the Depression, effectively raising the power of the federal government

The USA was the first to adopt federalism

With Federalism system, the framers sought to limit the national government by creating a second layer of state government. By granting a few "expressed powers" to the national government and leaving the rest to the state, the original Constitution recognized 2 sovereigns: State and federal governments.