AG 4.A

Unit IV Part A: Dividing and Sharing Powers

State and Local Powers

Concurrent Powers

• The National and State Governments also share powers, called Concurrent Powers
• The power to tax
• Maintaining and defining courts
• Enforcing laws
• Chartering banks

• Amendment 10 says that any power not delegated to the National Government are powers for the States
• We call these Reserved Powers
• These powers are not written in the Constitution but include: conducting elections, establishing and supporting schools, and regulating business within the state.

National Powers

Denied Powers

• The Constitution grants the National Government delegated powers
• Expressed Powers: or enumerated powers, are powers WRITTEN in the constitution
• Implied Powers: powers of the National Government that are IMPLIED by the Constitution.

• Article I, Sections 9 and 10 deny some powers to both the National and State Governments
• Passing Retroactive Laws
• Taxing Exports
• Sentence people without trial
• Passing laws that violate the constitution
• Grant titles of nobility
• There are other things denied by other parts of the Constitution as well as the Bill of Rights

Why Federalism

Supremacy Clause

• The main problem the framers faced was. How to make one government out of 13 independent states
• Federalism was the answer
• Two or more governments exercise power over the same people.
• In our federal system the National Government has some special powers, the State Governments have powers reserved for them, and some powers are shared.

• What happens when State Laws interfere with National Laws?
• According to the Supremacy Clause all laws passed by the National Government are the “Supreme Law of the Land”
• States cannot pass laws that contradict their own constitutions or the National Constitution