Gov. Lesson 2 The Constitution and Federalism
3 concurrent powers
a. levy and collect taxes b. borrow money c. establish courts
federalism strength
A major strength of federalism is that it allows local action in matters of local concern and national action in matters of wider concern. Federalism allows for the variation of traditions, needs, and desires between the States. For example, one third of the States are directly involved in the liquor business while elsewhere private enterprise is the rule. Another example is in 48 States most gas stations are self-service while in New Jersey and Oregon, motorists are forbidden to pump their own gas. North Dakota is the only State that does not require voters to register in order to cast their ballots while Nebraska is the only State with a unicameral legislature. Oregon is the only State to legalize physician-assisted suicide while Alaska, Delaware, New Hampshire, Montana, and Oregon do not impose a general sales tax.
block grants
Block grants are made for broader purposes such as health care, social services, and welfare. Block grants are made with less strings attached, so State and local governments have greater freedom in deciding how to spend block grant dollars. Many programs once supported by separate and fragmented categorical grants have been merged into broader block grants.
executive agreements
Executive agreements are an example of how the various ways that presidents have used their powers has contributed to the growth of the Constitution. An executive agreement is a pact made by the resident directly with the head of a foreign state. Executive agreements are used in the conduct of foreign affairs.
formal amendments
Formal amendments are changes that become part of the written language of the Constitution. They can be occur by being proposed by Congress by a two-thirds vote in both houses and ratified by the State legislatures of 38 of the States or ratified by conventions held in 38 States. They can also be proposed at a national convention called by Congress when requested by 34 of the State legislatures and ratified by the State legislatures of 38 of the States or ratified by conventions held in 38 States.
implied powers
Implied powers are not stated in the Constitution but are suggested by the expressed powers. The constitutional basis for implied powers is found in Article I, Section 8, Clause 18. Examples of implied powers include the regulation of labor management relations, the building of hydroelectric power dams, and the building of the 42,000-mile interstate highway system.
interstate compacts
Interstate compacts are agreements among the States and foreign states with the consent of Congress. By 1920, the States had only made 26 compacts, but the number is now over 200 with many involving several States. New York and New Jersey made a compact in 1921 that created the Port of New York Authority to manage and develop the harbor facilities bordering both States. All 50 States have joined in two of them: the Compact for the Supervision of Parolees and Probationers and the Compact of Juveniles. Both of these compacts enable States to share important law-enforcement date. Other compacts cover a wide range of subjects including compacts designed to coordinate the development and conservation of water, oil, wildlife, and fish; prevent forest fires; combat stream and harbor pollution; provide for tax collections; promote motor vehicle safety; facilitate the licensing of drivers; and encourage the cooperative use of public universities.
concurrent powers
Some powers delegated to the National Government are concurrent powers. The concurrent powers are possessed by both the National Government and States. Examples of concurrent powers include the power to levy and collect taxes, to define crimes and set punishments for them, and to condemn private property for public use.
division of powers and 10th amendment
The American system of government is an example of federalism that is defined in the Constitution. The Constitution provides for a division of powers between the National Government and the States, meaning certain powers are assigned to the National Government and certain powers are assigned to the States, The division of powers was spelled out in the Bill of Rights in the 10th Amendment which also embodies the principle of federalism.
article VI and constitution supreme law of the land
The Constitution and the laws and treaties are the supreme Law of the Land, meaning that the Constitution stands above all other forms of law in the United State. However, the division of powers created by the Constitution is bound to result with conflicts between national law and State law. The Supremacy Clause, article VI of the Constitution, joins the National Government and the States into a single governmental unit, a federal government. The Supremacy Clause holds together the complex structure of the American federal system.
reserved powers
The Constitution does not grant reserved powers to the National Government. However, States are not denied the reserved powers. Any State can forbid persons under 18 to marry without parental consent, or those under 21 to buy liquor. A State can also require that doctors, lawyers, hairdressers and plumbers be licensed in order to practice in the State.
amendment
The Framers knew that even the wisest of the constitution makers cannot build for all time. Thus, the Constitution provides for its own amendment which is a change in the written words of the Constitution. There are four methods of formal amendment, changes or additions that become part of the written language of the Constitution.
delegated powers
The National Government is a government of delegated powers. The National Government only has powers delegated to it in the Constitution. The three types of delegated powers are expressed, implied, and inherent.
exceptions to privileges and immunities
The Privileges and Immunities Clause does not allow States to draw reasonable distinctions between its own resident and those of other States. Thus, any State can require that a person live within the State for some time before he or she can vote or hold public office. Any State can also require some period of residence before one can be licensed to practice law, medicine, dentistry, and so on. Another example is the wild fish and game in a State are considered to be the common property of the people of that State. Thus, a State can require nonresidents to pay higher fees for fishing or hunting licenses than those paid by residents who pay taxes to provide fish hatcheries, enforce game laws, and so on. State colleges and universities regularly set higher tuition rates for students from out-of-State than those they charge residents.
privileges and immunities of interstate citizenship
The Privileges and Immunities Clause means that no State can draw unreasonable distinctions between its own residents and those persons who happen to live in other States. Each State must recognize the right of any American to travel in or become a resident of that State, allow any citizen to use its courts and make contracts, marry within its borders, or buy, own, rent, or sell property. A State cannot try to relieve its unemployment problems by requiring employers to give a hiring preference to in-State residents. The Supreme Court struck down a law in which the State of Alaska directed employers to prefer Alaskans in the hiring of workers to construct that State's oil and as pipelines, Hicklin v. Orbeck, 1978. The Court has also overturned a California law that set the welfare benefits paid to newly arrived residents at a lower level than those paid to long-term residents, Saenz v. Roe, 1999.
informal amendment
The United States Constitution can be changed informally. Informal amendments mean that the Constitution does not list these processes as forms of amending the Constitution, but due to societal change the interpretation of a part of the Constitution can change. Informal amendments can be made by basic legislation, executive action, court decisions, party practices, and custom.
branches of gov
The executive branch carries out the law. The President appoints Supreme Court justices and other federal judges. The President may also veto legislation, call special sessions, recommend legislation, and appeal to the people. The legislative branch makes the law. Congress makes laws, creates agencies and programs, appropriates funds to carry out laws and programs, may override veto with a two-thirds vote, and may remove the President through impeachment. Congress also creates lower courts and may remove judges through impeachment. The Senate approves treaties and presidential appointments as well as approving or rejecting the appointment of judges. The judicial branch interprets the law. Courts may declare acts of Congress to be unconstitutional while judges are appointed for life, free from executive control. Courts may also declare executive actions to be unconstitutional. The judicial branch of government decides conflicts between the national and state government.
expressed powers
The expressed powers are delegated to the National government in the Constitution. The powers are sometimes called the "enumerated powers." Most of the expressed powers are in Article I, Section 8. In 18 clauses, the Constitution expressly gives 27 powers to Congress, including the power to lay and collect taxes, coin money, regulate foreign and interstate commerce, raise and maintain armed forces, declare war, fix standards of weights and measure, grant patents and copyrights, and to do many other things.
bill of rights
The first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights. They set out the guarantees of freedom of belief and expression, freedom and security for the people, and equal treatment by the law. The 10th Amendment does not deal with civil rights as the others. Instead, it spells out the idea of reserved powers in the federal system.
inherent powers
The inherent powers belong to the National Government because it is the government of a sovereign state. The Constitution does not expressively provide for them, but they are powers that national governments have historically possessed. The major inherent powers include the power to regulate immigration, to deport undocumented aliens, to acquire territory, to grant diplomatic recognition to other states, and to protect the nation against rebellion or other attempts to overthrow the government.
amending the constitution formally and informally
There are four formal methods of amending the Constitution. One method has been used to adopt twenty-six of the twenty-seven amendments. Describe that method. The first method has been used to adopt twenty-six of the twenty-seven amendments. First, an amendment is proposed by a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress. Then, an amendment must be ratified by three fourths (38) of the State legislatures. The formal amendment process emphasizes federalism because when the Constitution is amended, that action represents the people's sovereign will. The proposals take place at the national level and the ratification is a State-by-State matter, allowing the people to speak.
Informal amendment is the process by which many changes have been made in the Constitution without changing the document's written word. Please write three or four sentences that describe the way each of the following informal methods can be used.
a. Basic legislation: Congress has passed a number of laws to spell out the brief provisions of the Constitution. Congress has added to the Constitution by passing laws that define how they regulate foreign and interstate commerce. In doing this, Congress has added to the Constitution. The Framers purposefully left sections of the Constitution skeletal so that Congress could add detail to provisions ad circumstances required. b. Executive action: The ways in which Presidents use their powers has contributed to the growth to the Constitution. Examples of this are presidential declarations of war or using armed forces in abroad combat without a declaration. Executive agreements in the conduct of foreign affairs are another example. Executive agreements are pacts made by the President directly with the head of a foreign state. c. Court decisions: The courts, especially the United States Supreme Court, applies the Constitution in many of their cases. The course use constitutional interpretation in their decisions. By doing this, the courts are demonstrating informal amendment. An example of this constitutional amplification by the Court can be seen in Marbury v. Madison, 1803. e. Custom: Many customs have developed in our governmental system. An example is that the 15 heads of the executive departments make up the Cabinet. Another custom is that the Senate will approve only those presidential appointees who are acceptable to the senator or senators of the President's party from the State involved, for example, a federal judge or a United States marshal. This practice is known as senatorial courtesy, and it is an unwritten rule that is closely followed in the Senate.
What does the Constitution mean when it states, "Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other State" (article IV, section 1)? Please give examples of how this clause is exercised. Then provide some examples of the exceptions to this clause.
a. Explanation: The term public acts refers to the laws of a State and records refers to birth certificates, marriage licenses, deeds to property, and car registrations. Judicial proceedings relate to the outcome of court actions: damage awards, the probating of wills, and divorce decrees. The Full Faith and Credit Clause most often comes into play in court matters. b. Examples: For example, Allen sues Bill in Florida, and the Florida court awards Allen in $50,000 in damages and Bill could not escape the payment damages by moving to Georgia, because Allen could ask Georgia courts to enforce the damage award. The case would not have to be retried in Georgia because the Georgia courts would have to give full faith and credit to the judgement made by the Florida court. Similarly, a person can prove age, place of birth, marital status, title to property, and similar facts by securing the necessary documents form the State where the record was made and the validity of these documents will be recognized in each of the 50 States. c. Exceptions: The Full Faith and Credit Clause is observed and operated routinely between and among the States. However, the rule has two exceptions. The first exception is that it applies only to civil, not criminal, matters. This means that one State cannot enforce another State's criminal law. The second exception is that full faith and credit need not be given to certain divorces granted by one State to residents of another State. The key question to the second exception is this: Was the person who obtained the divorce in fact a resident of the State that granted it? If the answer is yes, then the divorce will be accorded full faith and credit in other States. If the answer is no, then the State granting the divorce did not have the authority to do so, and another State can refuse to recognize it.
There are increasing degrees of cooperation between the national government and the states. This cooperation is called cooperative federalism. Please explain the following programs and provide examples from the textbook when they are given
a. Federal grants-in-aid: Federal grants-in-aid programs are grants of federal money or other resources to the States and/or their cities, countries, and other local units. These grants often help them perform a large share of their everyday functions because many of these governments are regularly strapped for funds. The history of grants-in-aid goes back over 20 years to before the Constitution. In the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the Congress under the Articles of Confederation provided for the government of the territory beyond the Ohio River. States then received grants of federal lands for schools and colleges, roads and canals, flood work control, and several others. In 1808, Congress gave the States $200,000 to support the militia and may of the New Deal programs aimed at bringing the nation out of the Great Depression of the 1930s were built around grants of money. More than 500 grants-in-aid programs exist now functioning in a variety of ways including in educations, mass transit, highway construction, health care, and on-the-job training. These grants total more than $250 billion and account for 25 percent of all State and local government spending each year. Grants-in-aid also blur the line of division of powers in the federal system because theses grants make it possible for the Federal Government to operate in such fields as education, low-income housing, local law enforcement, and mental health. b. Block grants: Block grants have been widely used in the last several years. They are made for more broadly defined purposes than the categorical grants, such as health care, social services, or welfare. Block grants are also made with fewer strings attached, giving State and local governments more freedom in deciding how they want to spend their block grant dollars. Beginning in the Reagan years, form the 1980s on, many programs that were once supported by separate and fragmented categorical grants have been merged into broader block grants. c. Revenue sharing: A form of monetary aid that was in place from 1972 to 1987 was known as revenue sharing. Congress gave an annual share of the huge federal tax revenue to the States and their cities, counties, and townships. Over the years the program was in force, the shared revenues amounted to over $83 billion. Congress placed only one major restriction on the use of the funds which was the money could not be spent for any program in which discrimination of race sex, national origin, age, religious belief, or physical disability was evident. Revenue sharing was largely supported by many State and local officials, but it was opposed by the Regan Administration and fell victim to the financial needs of a deficit-ridden National Government. d. Other forms of federal aid: The National Government aids the States in several other important ways. The FBI helps the State and local police while the army and air force equip and train each State's National Guard units. The Census Bureau's data are essential to State and local school, housing, and transportation officials as they plan for the future. "Lulu payments" are federal monies that go to the local governments in the areas in which there are large federal landholdings. These direct payments are made to take the place of the property taxes that those local governments cannot collect from the National Government. e. Aid that states provide to the national government: The States and their local units of government aid the National Government in many ways. State and local election officials conduct national elections in each State which are financed with State and local funds and regulated largely by State laws. Naturalization, the legal process by which aliens become citizens, most often takes place in State courts. Those who commit federal crimes and are sought by the FBI or other federal law enforcement agencies are often picked up by State and local police officers and held in local jails.
The Constitution places several obligations on the national government for the benefit of the states. Most are found in article IV. Please explain each obligation and provide examples.
a. Guarantee of a republican form of government: The Constitution requires the National Government to guarantee the every State a republican form of government, which is understood as a representative government. In the years following the Civil War, Congress declared that several southern States did not have republican governments. Congress refused to admit senators and representatives from several southern States until they ratified the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and broadened their laws to recognize voting and other African American rights. b. Protection against invasion and domestic violence: The Constitution states that the National Government must protect every State against invasion and domestic violence. In the late 1780s, it was uncertain as to whether all 13 States would stand together if attacked. So, the States demanded a pledge that an attack on any State would be viewed as an attack on all States. In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson ordered units of the United States Army into Detroit, Michigan at the request of governor George Romney when racial unrest exploded into violence and firefighters, State Police, and National Guard units could not control the riots, arson, and looting in the city. c. Respect for territorial integrity: The National Government is bound by the Constitution to respect the territory of the States. The National Government must recognize the legal existence and physical boundaries of every State. Congress must include members chosen in each of the States in both of its houses. Article V of the Constitution declares that no State can be deprived of equal representation in the Senate without its own consent. d. Admitting new states: Only Congress has the power to admit new States to the Union with only one restriction on that power. A new State cannot be created by taking territory from any existing States without the consent of the legislature and State involved. Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maine, and West Virginia were created from parts of preexisting States.
6 basic principles of american constitutional system
a. Popular sovereignty: All political power resides in the people in the United States and the people are sovereign. The people are the only source for any governmental power and government can only work with the consent of the governed. Popular sovereignty occurs throughout the Constitution making the National Government draw its power from the people. Similarly, each one of the State governments draws its authority from the people of that State, through that State's constitution. b. Limited government: Limited government means that a government may only do the things that the people have given it the power to do. The people are the only source of any of government's authority. Government must also obey the law and be conducted according to constitutional principles. Limited government is also described as the rule of the law meaning that the government and its officers are always subject to the law and never above the law. c. Separation of powers: The legislative, executive, and judicial powers of government are separated among three distinct and independent branches of the government. This concept is known as the separation of powers. The idea was written into all of the State constitutions during the Revolution. The separation of powers was designed to create a stronger government while also limiting the powers of that government. d. Checks and balances: The three branches of government are not completely separate or independent of one another. The three branches of government are instead tied together by a system of checks and balances. Each branch is subject to a number of restraints by the other branches. This means that each branch has certain powers to use to check the operations of the other two branches. e. Judicial review: Judicial review is the power of courts to determine whether the government's actions are in accordance with the Constitution. Judicial review is the power to declare a governmental action unconstitutional if it is found to violate the Constitution. All federal courts and most State courts hold the power of judicial review. The Constitution does not explicitly provide for judicial review in words, but it is clear that the Framers intended for federal courts and the Supreme Court to have that power. f. Federalism: Federalism is the division of power among a central government and several regional governments. Federalism came to the Constitution out of experience and necessity. The Framers constructed the federal arrangement, with a division of powers, as a compromise. The federal arrangement was an alternative to the system of nearly independent States and the too powerful central government.
3 ways constitution denies powers to national government
a. The Constitution expressively denies some powers to the National Government like the powers to levy duties on exports, conduct illegal searchers or seizures, nor deny any person accused of a crime a speedy and public trial or a trial by jury. The National Government are denied the power to prohibit freedom of religion, speech, press, or assembly as well. b. Several powers are denied to the National Government because of the Constitution's silence. The National Government has only the powers delegated to it by the Constitution. Among the powers not granted to the National Government are the powers to create a public school system, to enact uniform marriage and divorce laws, and to set up units of local government. c. Some powers are denied to the National Government because of the federal system. The Constitution does not intend for the National Government to have any power that could threaten the existence of the federal system. For example, Congress cannot tax any of the States or their local units in carrying out of their governmental functions.
