US Gov. Chap 4 (1-4)

Patriot Act 2001 (stands for and definition)

- Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism - investigate terrorists: telephones, internet, money, grand jury law expanded significantly the surveillance and investigative powers of the Department of Justice.

cooperative federalism has 3 elements

1. national and state agencies typically undertake government functions jointly rather than exclusively 2. the nation and states routinely share power. 3. power is not concentrated at any government level or in any agency; the fragmentation of responsibilities gives people and groups access to many venues of influence.

Constitution establishes a kind of federalism, the actual and proper balance of power between the nation and states has always been more a matter of debate than of formal theory. Three broad principles help to underscore why.

1. rather than operating in a mechanical fashion, American federalism is a flexible and dynamic system. 2. because of this flexibility, both elected and appointed officials across levels of government often make policy decisions based on pragmatic considerations without regard to theories of what American federalism should look like. (politics and policy goals rather than pure theoretical or ideological commitments about federalism tend to dominate decision making) 3. there is a growing recognition among public officials and citizens that public problems (such as questions involving tradeoffs of freedom, order, and equality) cut across governmental boundaries.

Cooperative Federalism

1930s A system of government in which powers and policy assignments are shared between states and the national government. They may also share costs, administration, and even blame for programs that work poorly. A view holding that the Constitution is an agreement among people who are citizens of both state and nation, so there is much overlap between state powers and national powers.

Dred Scott Decision (1857)

A Missouri slave sued for his freedom, claiming that his four year stay in the northern portion of the Louisiana Territory made free land by the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man. The U.S, Supreme Court decided he couldn't sue in federal court because he was property, not a citizen. Court decided that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the territories.

Coercive Federalism 1970's present 1937-present

A form of federalism in which the federal government pressures the states to change their policies by using regulations, mandates, and conditions (often involving threats to withdraw federal funding).

Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)

A major piece of federal legislation that provides federal direction to education and federal funds for schools, first passed in 1965. No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

restraint

A requirement laid down by act of Congress, prohibiting a state or local government from exercising a certain power. restraint might prohibit states from dumping sewage into the ocean.

mandate

A requirement that a state undertake an activity or provide a service, in keeping with minimum national standards. might require that states remove specified pollutants from public drinking water

coercive federalism

A view holding that the national government may impose its policy preferences on the states through regulations in the form of mandates and restraints.

project grants

Categorical grants awarded on the basis of competitive applications submitted by prospective recipients to perform a specific task or function. Such project grants have focused on health (substance abuse and HIV-AIDS programs); natural resources and the environment (radon, asbestos, and toxic pollution); and education, training, and employment (for disabled, homeless, and elderly persons).

formula grants

Categorical grants distributed according to a particular set of rules, called a formula, that specify who is eligible for the grants and how much each eligible applicant will receive. weigh factors such as state per capita income, number of school-age children, urban population, and number of families below the poverty line.

United States v. Lopez (1995)

Commerce clause of Constitution does not give Congress the power to regulate guns near state-operated schools

how was the New Deal not revolutionary

Congress did not claim any new powers to address the nation's economic problems. Rather, the national legislature simply used its constitutional powers to suit the circumstances.

Under the New Deal, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's response to the Depression,

Congress enacted various emergency relief programs designed to stimulate economic activity and help the unemployed.

categorical grants

Federal grants for specific purposes, such as building an airport by either formula or project. state governments, local governments, and public and private nonprofit organizations.

contrast to categorical grants, Congress awards block grants

Grants-in-aid awarded for general purposes, allowing the recipient great discretion in spending the grant money.

South Dakota v. Dole (1987)

In a 7-to-2 decision, the Court held that Congress, acting indirectly to encourage uniformity in states' drinking ages, was within constitutional bounds. The Court found that the legislation was in pursuit of "the general welfare," and that the means chosen to do so were reasonable. The Court also held that the Twenty-first Amendment's limitations on spending power were not prohibitions on congressional attempts to achieve federal objectives indirectly. The five percent loss of highway funds was not unduly coercive.

Patriot Act (2001)

Law responding to 9/11. Expands anti-terrorist powers (wiretapping, surveillance); 4th Amendment concern for civil liberties.

McCulloch v. Maryland

Maryland was trying to tax the national bank and Supreme Court ruled that federal law was stronger than the state law

grant-in-aid (intergovernmental transfer)

Money provided by one level of government to another to be spent for a given purpose. paid by one level of government to another level of government to be spent for a given purpose.

Brady Bill and Assault weapons ban

Prohibition on the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms it defined as "assault weapons," as well as certain ammunition magazines it defined as "large capacity." national system to check the background of prospective gun buyers in order to weed out, among others, convicted felons and those with mental illness.

Preclearance is required by

Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, several states are required to submit their redistricting plans to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval.

Conservatives are frequently portrayed as believing that different states have different problems and resources and that returning control to state governments would promote diversity. thus

States would be free to experiment with alternative ways to confront their problems. States would compete with one another.

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

The Supreme Court upheld broad congressional power to regulate interstate commerce. The Court's broad interpretation of the Constitution's commerce clause paved the way for later rulings upholding expansive federal powers.

Commerce Clause

The clause in the Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) that gives Congress the power to regulate all business activities that cross state lines or affect more than one state or other nations. The third clause of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to regulate commerce among the states.

Preemption

The power of Congress to enact laws by which the national government assumes total or partial responsibility for a state government function. estricts the discretionary power of the states

Tenth Amendment:

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."

redistricting

The process of redrawing political boundaries to reflect changes in population. The redrawing of congressional and other legislative district lines following the census, to accommodate population shifts and keep districts as equal as possible in population.

Judicial Interpretation

This term refers to the courts ruling on law or policy where they interpret the policy broadly and in some cases might be seen as making a new policy by its interpretation.

2010 law SB1070

U.S. law requires foreigners who are not citizens living in the United States—called aliens—to register with the government and carry their registration papers. criminalizing the failure to carry the necessary papers. The law also cracked down on those who hire, transport, or shelter illegal aliens..

USA-PATRIOT Act. (USA-PATRIOT is an acronym for

Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.)

cooperative federalism acknowledges what and rejects what ideas

acknowledges the increasing overlap between state and national functions and rejects the idea of separate spheres, or layers, for the states and the national government.

policy entrepreneurs

activists in or out of government who pull together a political majority on behalf of unorganized interests Citizens, members of interest groups, or public officials who champion particular policy ideas.

Affordable Care Act. A 2012

by a 7-2 vote, the justices held that the national government could not threaten states with the complete loss of federal funding for Medicaid should states refuse to comply with the Act's health-care expansion.

political scientists use a metaphor to describe the idea of dual federalism.

call it layer-cake federalism (see Figure 4.1), in which the powers and functions of the national and state governments are as separate as the layers of a cake. Each government is supreme in its own layer, its own sphere of action. The two layers are distinct, and the dimensions of each layer are fixed by the Constitution.

Grants-in-aid take two general forms:

categorical grants and block grants.

liberals, believing that one function of the national government is to bring about equality, are more likely to support the

cooperative approach and more activism from Washington.

How was the New Deal funded?

deficit spending

two common representations of the system (federalism?:

dual federalism and cooperative federalism.

conservatives are often associated with which form of federalism

dual federalism.

3rd theory of federalism

each government unit—nation and state—is sovereign within its sphere

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

enacted feb 2009, $787 mil in government spending to attempt to revive the economy offered substantial direct aid to states beleaguered by the recession in the form of Medicaid payments, extended unemployment benefits, school and infrastructure spending, and other grants.

The Do Not Call Implementation Act of 2003

example of partial preemption States retained authority to regulate telemarketing provided they met the minimum standards spelled out by the act.

There are two kinds of categorical grants:

formula grants and project grants.

grants-in-aid program

grants of federal money or other resources to States, cities, counties, and other local units

Roger B. Taney's tenure as chief justice

helped modify Marshall's vigorous nationalism. imposed firm limits on the powers of the national government.

power of national (element of federalism)

i.e., federal) courts to assure the supremacy of the U.S. Constitution and national laws.

implied powers

implied powers Those powers that Congress needs to execute its enumerated powers.

A critical difference between the theories of dual and cooperative federalism is the way they

interpret two sections of the Constitution that define the relationship between the national and state governments. Article I, Section 8, lists the enumerated powers of Congress and then concludes with the elastic clause, which gives Congress the power to "make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers" (see Chapter 3). The Tenth Amendment reserves for the states or the people powers not assigned to the national government or denied to the states by the Constitution. Dual federalism postulates an inflexible elastic clause and a spacious Tenth Amendment. Cooperative federalism postulates a flexible elastic clause and confines the Tenth Amendment to a self-evident, obvious truth.

Violence Against Women Act (1994)

law passed in 1994 that increased federal resources to apprehend and prosecute men guilty of violent acts against women in 2000. violated both the commerce clause and Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Chief Justice Rehnquist, speaking for the five-person majority, declared that "the Constitution requires a distinction between what is truly national and what is truly local."

elastic clause of the Constitution gives Congress the power to

make all laws that are "necessary and proper" to carry out its responsibilities.

The bakery metaphor used to describe cooperative federalism is a

marble cake national and state governments do not act in separate spheres; they are intermingled in vertical and diagonal strands and swirls. In short, their functions are mixed in the American federal system

first theory of dual federalism

national government rules by enumerated powers only

dual federalism portrays the states as

powerful components of the federal system

sovereignty, (element of federalism )

quality of being supreme in power or authority, of national and state governments. affects political leadership. A governor may not be a president's political equal, but governors have their own sovereignty apart from the national government.

Unfunded Mandates Relief Act of 1995.

requires the Congressional Budget Office to prepare cost estimates of any newly proposed national legislation that would impose more than $50 million a year in costs on state and local governments or more than $100 million a year in costs on private business.

Critical to this theory is an expansive view of the Constitution's supremacy clause (Article VI), which specifically subordinates

state law to national law and charges every government official with disregarding state laws that are inconsistent with the Constitution, national laws, or treaties.

of primary importance in dual federalism are

state's rights

states' rights

states' rights The idea that all rights not specifically conferred on the national government by the U.S. Constitution are reserved to the states. According to the theory of dual federalism, a rigid wall separates the nation and the states.

pundits and scholars often argue that what conservatives hope for, liberals fear. Liberals remember,

states' rights model allowed extreme political and social inequalities and that it supported racism. Blacks and city dwellers were often left virtually unrepresented by white state legislators who disproportionately served rural interests. The conclusion is that liberals believe the states remain unwilling or unable to protect the rights or provide for the needs of their citizens,

dual federalism

sums up a theory about the proper relationship between the national government and the states. The theory has four essential parts.

In Printz v. United States (1997),

the Supreme Court ruled that part of the 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act calling for the development of a national database for instant background checks for people purchasing handguns Congress could not require local officials to implement a regulatory scheme imposed by the national government.

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

the Supreme Court upheld the power of the national government and denied the right of a state to tax the federal bank using the Constitution's supremacy clause. The Court's broad interpretation of the necessary and proper clause paved the way for later rulings upholding expansive federal powers

2nd theory of federalism

the national government has a limited set of constitutional purposes

4th theory of federalism

the relationship between nation and states is best characterized by tension rather than cooperation.

under dual federalism the function and responsibilities of the national and state governments are

theoretically differen and practically separate from each other

Congressional preemption statutes infringe on state powers in two ways:

through mandates and restraints.

principle of federalism,

two or more governments exercise power and authority over the same people and the same territory.

Marshall was embracing cooperative federalism,

which sees a direct relationship between the people and the national government, with no need for the states to act as intermediaries.