What powers are extended to the federal government? Explain in detail. The powers extended to the federal government are collecting taxes, regulate interstate commerce, making of coin money, regulate currency, set standards of weights and measure, declare war, and Raise and maintain an army and navy. They also have implied powers based on the elastic clause (Art. I, § 8, cl. 5), powers considered “necessary and proper” for carrying out the enumerated (or express) powers For example, in 1791, Federalists in Congress argued that the creation of a national bank was “necessary and proper” for Congress to execute its enumerated powers to coin and borrow money and regulate currency. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) confirmed Congress’s right to found this national bank.
What components of the US Constitution describe and detail the powers extended to the federal government? The Constitution of the United States defines a government with three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. Each branch has certain powers, but those powers are also bound by specific limits, exercised primarily in a system of checks and balances by the other branches. This concept is known as “separation of powers,” according to an overview on the website of the National Conference of State Legislatures, a term coined by Charles-Louis de Secondat, an 18th-century French social and political philosopher. The legislative branch makes laws, but they must be signed by the executive to take effect, or they may be vetoed.
The judicial branch rules on the laws’ constitutionality. Legislators can respond by overriding a veto, changing a law or amending the Constitution. What powers are extended to the state governments? Explain in detail. The powers extended to the state government are issue licenses, conduct local elections, regulate intrastate commerce, and provide for public health and safety. Sometimes there is a conflict between the state and federal governments in defining who an exclusive power belongs to. For examples, the federal government might make a law that is related to an exclusive state power, such as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
DOMA is a federal law that defines marriage; however, the power to define marriage has been traditionally an exclusive state power. Other times, states will make a law that is related to an exclusive federal power, such as local medicinal marijuana laws.
Marijuana is federally regulated because the federal government has an exclusive power to regulate interstate commerce (goods moving from state to state).
In these situations, the courts may make the final decision. What are the power limitations of the federal government? Explain. Powers that the Constitution explicitly denies to the federal government include the writ of habeas corpus cannot be suspended unless in cases of rebellion or invasion, when deemed necessary to national safety, no bill of attainder or ex post facto law can be passed, and the “Supreme law of the land” the Constitution and federal laws take precedence over state laws. What are the power limitations of the state governments? Explain.
The original purpose of constitutional limits on government was to check the arbitrary actions of hereditary monarchs who abused their power, imposed unwanted taxes, or launched unpopular wars. Using agreements like the Magna Carta, nobles with substantial property forced the principle of restraint on European monarchs, although mainly through consultative institutions. Over centuries, through popular revolutions or the evolution of representative institutions like parliaments, there developed greater checks on power and a greater separation of government into independent branches. Under unwritten and written constitutions, rulers could no longer act unilaterally against the will of the people and instead had to gain approval from parliaments and obey established law.
This gradual development of constitutional limits on state power sometimes occurred in societies on other continents, but generally the major states of Asia, Africa, and the Americas did not impose such explicit, institutional curbs on their rulers. Are there any similarities or overlapping of powers between the two levels of government? Explain and describe those similarities or overlapping powers, if any. How do the state governments and the federal government deal with those powers that are similar or overlap? Which government has supremacy when there are similarities or overlap? Explain. Yes, Historically, debates over the wisdom of expanding the reach of federal power have reflected the tension between competing notions: the idea that responsibilities for the business of government can be allocated neatly into fixed federal and state spheres, and the idea that the federal government, including the federal courts, must have the flexibility to expand its reach to respond to changing national problems and concerns.
In recent years, Congress has enacted several statutes expanding the criminal jurisdiction of the federal courts into areas previously the sole responsibility of the states. Arguments that three such expansions, the Violence against Women Act, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, and the Child Support Recovery Act of 1992, fit within a traditional rationale for exercises of federal jurisdiction. In addition, this article suggests that, as a practical matter, these expansions do not signal an attempt to supplant state authority but, rather, are an effort to supplement state authority by invoking federal power and applying federal resources in strategic, limited ways. The wise allocation of federal resources in areas of overlapping state and federal jurisdiction depends on the selective exercise of federal prosecutorial discretion.