American Government: Roots and Reform, 2014 Election Update, 12e

O'Connor | Sabato | Yanus

Copyright 2016, 2014, 2011

Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

The Federal System

Lewis W Hine/Getty Images

Learning Objectives

3.1

3.2

Trace the roots of the federal system

and the Constitution's allocation of
powers between the national and
state governments.
Determine the impact of the
Marshall Court on federalism.

Learning Objectives

3.3

3.4

Describe the emergence and decline

of dual federalism.

Explain how cooperative federalism

led to the growth of the national
government at the expense of the
states.

Learning Objectives

3.5

Describe how the federal budget is

used to further influence state and
local government's policies.

3.6

Explore the role of the judiciary as

arbiter of federalstate conflicts.

Learning Objectives

3.7

Assess the challenges in balancing

national and state powers and the
consequences for policy making.

Roots of the Federal System

3.1

National Powers Under the Constitution

State Powers Under the Constitution
Concurrent Powers Under the Constitution
Powers Denied Under the Constitution
Interstate Relations Under the Constitution
Local Governments Under the Constitution

National Powers Under the

Constitution
Enumerated powers

Coin money
Conduct foreign relations
Provide for army and navy
Declare war
Collect duties and taxes

3.1

National Powers Under the

Constitution
Necessary and proper clause (elastic)
Enact laws for exercising enumerated powers
Implied powers

Supremacy clause
national laws are supreme when they
conflict with state laws

3.1

FIGURE 3.1: Where does

governmental authority come from?

3.1

When do national and state

governments work together?

3.1

Charles Dharapak/AP Images

State Powers Under the

Constitution
State powers not enumerated
Tenth Amendment
Reserved powers

3.1

Concurrent Powers Under

the Constitution
Overlapping powers

Power to tax
Borrow money
Establish courts
Charter banks
Spend money for general welfare

3.1

FIGURE 3.2 How is governmental power 3.1

distributed in the federal system?

Powers Denied Under the

Constitution
No state favouritism
No titles of nobility
Bills of attainder
Ex post facto laws

3.1

Interstate Relations Under

the Constitution
Supreme Court settles disputes
Full faith and credit clause
Privileges and immunities clause
Extradition clause
Interstate compacts

3.1

Local Governments Under

the Constitution
No power under Constitution
Operate under state charter (Dillon's Rule,
1868) local governments need a state charter
to operate
Counties
Municipalities
Towns
Special districts
Most numerous form of government

3.1

FIGURE 3.3 How many governments

exist in
the United States?

3.1

3.1 What is the source of

governmental authority in the U.S.

federal system?
a. The states
b. The people
c. The president
d. The federal legislature (Congress)

3.1

3.1 What is the source of

governmental authority in the U.S.

federal system?
a. The states
b. The people
c. The president
d. The federal legislature (Congress)

3.1

Federalism and the Marshall

Court
Defining National Power
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Affirming National Power
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

3.2

Federalism and the Marshall

Court

3.2

Limiting the Bill of Rights

Barron v. Baltimore (1833)
Barron operated docking business
City of Baltimore deposited dirt in a wharf
during construction
Not able to operate
Sued for violation of 5th Amendment
Court said Bill of Rights only applied to
Federal Government

Defining National Power:

McCulloch v. Maryland
(1819)

3.2

Second Bank of the U.S.

State of Maryland tried to tax

First Court decision to define national and state

government relationship
Could Congress charter a bank?
Could states tax it?

Affirming National Power:

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

3.2

Congress's authority under commerce clause

disputed
New York State Legislature gave exclusive contract to
ferryboat operator Robert Fulton on the Hudson River
Congress licensed ship to sail on same waters
Power to regulate just products or commercial activity too?

Ruling:
Congress can regulate commercial activity
New York had no authority to grant monopoly

Limiting the Bill of Rights:

Barron v. Baltimore (1833)

3.2

Eminent Guaranteed Domain Clause

by Fifth Amendment
Barron operated docking business
City of Baltimore deposited dirt in a wharf
during construction
Not able to operate
Sued for violation of 5th Amendment
Action by state, not federal, government caused damages
Federal government not at fault for state actions

3.2 Which Supreme Court cases

3.2

restricted the powers of the national

government?
a. Barron v. Baltimore (1833)
b. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
c. Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
d. None of the above

3.2 Which Supreme Court cases

3.2

restricted the powers of the national

government?
a. Barron v. Baltimore (1833)
b. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
c. Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
d. None of the above

Dual Federalism: States'

Rights, the Civil War, and
Reconstruction

3.3

The States Assert Their Powers:

Nullification
The Dred Scott Decision
Reconstruction and the Transformation of
Dual Federalism
Amending the National-State Relationship

Dual Federalism

3.3

Federal and State governments are separate but

equally powerful
Based on a tenth Amendment argument
Federal governments powers are listed in Article I
Section 8.
All other powers are reserved to states

States Assert Their Powers:

Nullification

3.3

Nullification
States declare federal laws void if they believed it violated the
Constitution

Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)

Unconstitutional

"Tariff of Abominations" (1828)

States had to pay duties on raw goods
Affected price of goods and ability to sell

Southern states use nullification to resist anti-slavery

laws

The Dred Scott Decision

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)Decision
Negroes were not citizens. States could not grant
citizenship to them.
Congress could not ban slavery in new territories.
Enhanced states' power

3.3

Reconstruction and the

3.3
Transformation of Dual
Nullification, dual federalism destroyed by Civil War
Federalism
Reconstruction
New state constitutions

Supreme Court limits state power

Allowed U.S. Congress to regulate economic relationships

Monopolies outlawed
Interstate Commerce Act
Sherman Anti-trust Act
But said manufacturing was not commerce
Also said that personal income tax was unconstitutional

How did the relationship between state

and national governments change after
the Civil War?

Southern Pacific News Bureau/AP Images

3.3

Amending the NationalState Relationship

Sixteenth Amendment
Overrode Court Decision Federal personal income Tax IS
constitutional
Money is power

Seventeenth Amendment (1913)

Direct election of senators
Took power away from State Legislatures

3.3

3.3 The theory that states can refuse

to abide by federal laws violates what

clause of the Constitution?
a. Supremacy clause
b. Necessary and Proper clause
c. First Amendment
d. Full Faith and Credit clause

3.3

3.3 The theory that states can refuse

to abide by federal laws violates what

clause of the Constitution?
a. Supremacy clause
b. Necessary and Proper clause
c. First Amendment
d. Full Faith and Credit clause

3.3

Need for National Actions Arise:

The New Deal

3.3

Bank Failures Common in 1920s

1921 Slump in agriculture prices

1926 Construction industry went into decline

1929 Inventories of consumer goods and automobiles were

at all time high (
few people could afford to buy or didnt feel comfortable
spending money

October 29, 1929 stock prices crashed

Nations economy went with it.

Cooperative Federalism:
Growth of National
Government

3.4

Cooperative Federalism
Marble cake versus layer cake

Need for National Actions Arise: The New

Deal

Need for National Action

Arises: The New Deal

3.4

Great Depression

New Deal programs increased federal authority

New and unprecedented levels of federal government
intervention
Alphabetocracy
FHA Federal Housing Administration
CCC Civilian Conservation Corps
AAA - Agricultural Adjustment Administration
National Recovery Administration

States could not solve these problems on their own.

Need for National Action

Arises: The New Deal

3.4

Local government involvement

Federal Government would often work directly with cities
City officials turned out voters to support programs

Constitutional challenges
Many Acts declared unconstitutional
Roosevelt threatened to request appointment of More
justices (Between 4 and 6)
court packing would majority of justices that would support the
acts.
Court responded by stopping declaring future acts unconstitutional

Need for National Action

Arises: The New Deal

3.4

Also, Roosevelt had the opportunity to nominate his first

Supreme Court justice,
By 1942 all but two of the justices were his appointees

How did FDR's public actions change

conceptions about federalism?

February 10, 1937, Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch,

Trying to Change the Umpiring;

3.4

3.4 What do we call the type of

3.4

federalism that developed in the 1930s?

a. New Deal federalism
b. Progressive federalism
c. Layer cake federalism
d. Cooperative federalism

3.4 What do we call the type of

3.4

federalism that developed in the 1930s?

a. New Deal federalism
b. Progressive federalism
c. Layer cake federalism
d. Cooperative federalism

Federal Grants to State and

Local Governments
Categorical Grants
Block Grants
Unfunded Mandates
Programmatic Requests

3.5

Categorical Grants

3.5

U.S. Congress appropriates funds for a specific

purpose
Subject to detailed conditions imposed by the national
government
Federal Government may provide up to 90% pf funding
for programs

Grants serve 3 purposes

Provide funds
Address national problems
Redistribute funds between rich and poor states

Categorical Grants

3.5

Great Society
Lyndon Baines Johnson
War On Poverty
Wanted to combat poverty through urban
renewal, education reform and unemployment
relief
Grants used as coercion to cooperate
Money given to states, local government and
citizen action groups if necessary

Block Grants
Block grants less restrictive

Give states more discretion in spending funds

General spending guidelines
Johnson Administration started
More common during the Nixon Administration (1970s)
New Federalism
Return to power of states - devolution

Also very common in Reagan Administration and

Clinton Administration
Devolution revolution

3.5

Unfunded Mandates

3.5

Unfunded mandates
Federal laws that states must implement without additional
federal funding.

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995

Congress cannot pass a law without debating how to fund it.
Difficult to enforce
No Child Left Behind (2001)
Federal Requirements on standards for class size, testing, a teacher
competency
Did not consider or a lot money for meeting the requirements

Who supported scaling back the federal

government and increasing the use of
block grants?

John Duricka/AP Images

3.5

Programmatic Requests
Funds earmarked for specific projects within
states
Secured by lobbyists or members of Congress
for their districts

3.5

3.5 How do block grants differ from

3.5

categorical grants?

a. They provide less money to states.

b. They provide more money to states.
c. They have fewer restrictions on how they
are spent
d. They have more restrictions on how they
are spent

3.5 How do block grants differ from

categorical grants?

a. They provide less money to states.

b. They provide more money to states.
c. They have fewer restrictions on how
they are spent
d. They have more restrictions on how they
are spent

3.5

Judicial Federalism
The Rehnquist Court
The Roberts Court

3.6

The Rehnquist Court

3.6

Appointed by Reagan
Committed to states' rights
Rolled back federal authority
U.S. v. Lopez (1995)
Supreme Court ruled that Congress could not use the
interstate commerce law to ban hand guns within 1,000 feet of a
schools.
Gun control laws were a state, not a federal issue

The Roberts Court

With federal government, has made
decisions about:
Immigration
Health care reform

3.6

3.6 From the New Deal until the

3.6

1980s, the attitude of the Court toward

federal authority was:
a. To expand it
b. To limit it
c. To expand it in one or two areas only
d. To keep the balance as the Framers
intended in the 1780s

3.6 From the New Deal until the

3.6

1980s, the attitude of the Court toward

federal authority was:
a. To expand it
b. To limit it
c. To expand it in one or two areas only
d. To keep the balance as the Framers
intended in the 1780s

Progressive Federalism

3.7

Pragmatic approach
Coercion and cooperation
federal government tries to reach consensus and establish a
national standard
but, if that fails, national policy makers may embrace states' efforts
to address that policy issue.

"Free-for-all" federalism
50 state standards costly and difficult

How do views on the role of

government change?

David Sipress / The New Yorker Collection / www.cartoonbank.com

3.7

3.7 What is the main argument

3.7

against progressive federalism?

a. States legislatures unable agree on state
standards
b. National standards too hard for poor states
to meet
c. Costly to comply with differing state
standards
d. Difficult to reach consensus on national
standards

3.7 What is the main argument

3.7

against cooperative federalism?

a. States legislatures unable agree on state
standards
b. National standards too hard for poor states
to meet
c. Costly to comply with differing state
standards
d. Difficult to reach consensus on national
standards

Discussion Questions
Did the Framers intend for federal or state
governments to be supreme in the federal system?
How has the balance of power between state and
federal governments shifted? Why have these
changes occurred?