Federal-State Relations and the US Constitution
We might expect that the Constitution would provide clear rules regarding federal-state relations. However, the Constitution is often considered an "invitation to struggle" (Corwin 201) because there is so much ambiguity about the relations among its parts. For example, Article I, Section 8 sets out the expressed powers of the U.S. Congress, but then clause 18 of this section, the Necessary and Proper Clause, allows Congress to extend its influence. Congress has the power:
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
Consider the expressed powers enumerated in clauses 12 and 13: Congress can create an army and a navy. If Congress can create an army and a navy, can it create an Air Force? A Space Force? With the Necessary and Proper Clause, these expansions of power are constitutional. However, at the time of the Constitution's ratification after the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, many states demanded the addition of a Bill of Rights to stop the federal government from intruding on individual rights and the traditional powers of state governments. Hence, the 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.
States have reserved powers, meaning that states have jurisdiction in all areas of law unless the Constitution has expressly given control to the federal government.
However, the constitutional evolution of federal-state relations did not stop with its ratification. The federal government has gained much more power as the Supreme Court has required that states incorporate the US Bill of Rights into state law as mandated by the Fourteenth Amendment added in 1868:
No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Table 3.2.1 summarizes the most important parts of the Constitution that establish the relationship between states and the national government.
Table \(\PageIndex{1}\): Constitutional Clauses Regarding Federalism
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Constitutional Clause or Amendment
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Impact
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Article I, Sec. 8, clauses 1-17: the Expressed Powers
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Article I, concerning the organization and powers of Congress, establishes the enumerated powers of Congress.
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Article I, Sec. 8, clause 18: The Necessary and Proper Clause
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Congress has additional "implied" powers not necessarily specified in Article I if they are necessary and proper to exercise one of the expressed powers
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Article IV: The Full and Faith Credit Clause
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States shall "recognize" each other's laws and legal decisions, but Congress may regulate these relationships
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Article VI: the Supremacy Clause
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The Constitution is the supreme law of the land
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The Ninth Amendment
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While the Constitution and the Amendments set out explicit rights, other rights are "retained" by the people
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The Tenth Amendment
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Powers that are not given to the federal government by the Constitution are "reserved" to the states.
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The Fourteenth Amendment
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States cannot make laws that deprive their citizens or any persons in their jurisdiction of their rights as Americans or deny them the "equal protection of the laws."
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