Federalism

System of government in which power is shared between a central government and individual state or provincial governments. The United States is a federal republic, consisting of a national government and fifty separate state governments. Under the U.S. Constitution, states have authority over matters within their borders, but they are bound to uphold all laws passed by the national government.

The Constitution grants specific powers to Congress, known as expressed powers. It also imposes limitations on the powers of Congress, such as forbidding it from passing certain types of taxes, granting titles of nobility, or suspending habeas corpus. In addition, it cedes to the states any powers not specifically granted to the national government. This gives the states great leeway to act within their own boundaries.

Article VI of the Constitution, however, provides that the laws and treaties of the United States “shall be the supreme law of the land … and that the Judges of the several States shall be bound thereby in their decisions, anything in the respective Constitutions or laws of the individual States to the contrary notwithstanding.” This so-called supremacy clause means that state judges and officials are bound to uphold the Constitution over any local or state laws. The supremacy clause was reinforced by a provision stating that all members of Congress and the state legislatures, as well as all executive and judicial officers of the national and state governments, “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation to support this Constitution.”

The supremacy clause was designed to prevent the states from passing laws contrary to the Constitution. To eliminate any doubt of their intention to put an end to irresponsible acts of the individual states, the delegates specified what the states could not do as well as what the states were required to do. Acts prohibited to the states were placed in Section 10 of Article I, while those required of them were placed in Sections 1 and 2 of Article IV.

Most of these provisions were uncontroversial. For example, states were required to use gold or silver as legal tender unless Congress agreed to another form of currency. Article IV also required that each state give “full faith and credit” to the acts of other states, respect “all Privileges and Immunities” of every citizen, and deliver up fugitives from justice. As with the rest of the Constitution, the supremacy clause assigned the enforcement of these provisions to the courts.