What explains the relationship between the states and the national government?

Federalism is a system of government where the national governments and the state governments share powers. It is the basis of the Constitution and the US government.

Powers: Delegated, Enumerated, and Concurrent

As a result of the relationship between the state and federal government, there are powers that are exclusive to the states, powers exclusive to the federal government, and powers that are shared.

The powers that exclusively belong to the national government are called delegated or enumerated powers.

Powers that are shared by the federal and state governments are called concurrent powers. 

Delegated or enumerated powers are those that the national government controls. These include printing money, declaring war, regulating interstate trade, making treaties and working with foreign policy, and regulating international trade. Reserving these powers specifically for the national government, unifies the United States under a strong central government. 

Concurrent powers include collecting taxes, land for public use like building roads, borrow money, and establishing and operating court systems. 

There are also powers that are specific to the states. These powers are regulating intrastate commerce, conducting elections, making local governments, and ratifying constitutional amendments. Having powers exclusively for the states makes sure that the national government is not becoming too powerful. 

It is also important to understand that power between the national and state governments fluctuates in order to meet the needs of society.

Historically, in times of crisis, the powers of the national government were escalated in order to provide necessary aid to the states. A current example of this is the Covid-19 outbreak in the United States. Many states are currently in need of medical supplies and aid by the federal government in order to deal with the exponential increase of cases in their states. 

Federal Funding 💵

Some ways that the federal government can respond is through incentives, aid programs, and grants.

Categorical grants are federal aid given to states with rules in place. In order to receive the money, the states must agree to the federally mandated rules. These rules usually deal with how the money will be spent.

Another type of grant is the block grant. This type of grant is less regulated than categorical grants. For block grants, the states have some authority on what they want to use the federal aid for. 

There are also mandates that can be funded or unfunded. When the federal government wants the state to do something and they give them federal aid to do so, then it is a funded mandate. This is because the federal government is giving the states money.

An unfunded mandate is when the federal government requires the states to perform actions without providing them federal aid. It is unfunded because the states must conform to the regulations on their own without any federal aid. 

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After the American colonies won their freedom from England, the thirteen colonies became thirteen states. The new states decided to work together. Their system of government was described in the Articles of Confederation. In this system, the state governments had most of the power. The Federal Government was very weak. This was very different from the government under the King of England.

The Founding Fathers thought that this system left the nation too weak. They decided to develop a new system of government. They wrote a new document called the Constitution, to replace the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution made a stronger Federal Government. It gave power to both the Federal Government and the state governments. This system is called federalism.

Here are some examples of how powers are shared between the Federal Government and state governments.

In addition, the Federal Government and state governments share these powers:

• Making and enforcing laws
• Making taxes
• Borrowing money

The United States is a constitution-based federal system, meaning power is distributed between a national (federal) government and local (state) governments.

Although the Supremacy Clause states that the Constitution, federal laws, and treaties are the “supreme law of the land,” according to the Supreme Court, it is clear that the Constitution created a federal government of limited powers. The Supreme Court has noted that “every law enacted by Congress must be based on one or more of its powers enumerated in the Constitution.”

These limited powers are set forth as what are termed “enumerated powers” in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. These enumerated powers include, among other things, the power to levy taxes, regulate commerce, establish a uniform law of naturalization, establish federal courts (subordinate to the Supreme Court), establish and maintain a military, and declare war.

In addition, the Necessary and Proper Clause has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to define “implied powers,” those which are necessary to carry out those powers enumerated in the Constitution. In McCulloch v. Maryland, Justice John Marshall set forth the doctrine of implied powers, stating, that a government entrusted with great powers must also be entrusted with the power to execute them.

While the Constitution thus grants broad powers to the federal government, they are limited by the 10th Amendment, which states that “[t]he 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.”

As James Madison explained, “[t]he powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.”

These reserved powers have generally been referred to as “police powers,” such as those required for public safety, health, and welfare.

Finally, certain powers are called concurrent powers, which the states and the federal government both may exercise. These can include, for example, setting up courts, levying taxes, and spending and borrowing money. Typically, these are powers necessary for maintenance of public facilities.

As can be appreciated, one of the difficulties in the federal system is determining which entity, if any, has the power to legislate in a particular realm. In general, the problem of conflicting laws between the states and the federal government has given rise to what is called the doctrine of preemption.

Under this doctrine, based on the Supremacy Clause, if a state or local law conflicts with a federal law, the state or local law must give way (unless the federal law is itself unconstitutional, in other words, it exceeds the power of the federal government). As Justice Marshall put it in McCulloch v. Maryland, “[s]tates have no power, by taxation or otherwise, to retard, impede, burden, or in any manner control the operations of the Constitutional laws enacted by Congress to carry into execution the powers vested in the Federal Government.”

Under this doctrine, the Supreme Court has indicated that the Supremacy Clause may entail preemption of state law either by express provision, by implication, or by a conflict between federal and state law. If there is an express provision in the legislation, or if there is an explicit conflict between the state law at issue and the federal law, the state law provision is immediately invalid. Field preemption occurs when Congress legislates in a way that is comprehensive to an entire field of an issue. Impossibility preemption occurs when it would be impossible for someone to comply with both state and federal laws. Purposes and objectives preemption occurs when the purposes and objectives of the federal law would be thwarted by the state law.

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