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US government and civics
Course: US government and civics > Unit 1
Lesson 9: Constitutional interpretations of federalism- Federal and state powers and the Tenth and Fourteenth Amendments
- The Tenth Amendment
- Enumerated and implied powers of the US federal government
- McCulloch v. Maryland - case facts
- McCulloch v. Maryland
- United States v. Lopez
- Constitutional interpretations of federalism: lesson overview
- Constitutional interpretations of federalism
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Federal and state powers and the Tenth and Fourteenth Amendments
The video explores the balance between federal and state powers in the U.S. Constitution. It discusses the Commerce Clause, the necessary and proper clause, and the 9th and 10th amendments. It also covers the 14th Amendment's impact on civil rights and current debates.
Want to join the conversation?
- What are some examples of popular supreme court cases today that deal with the difference betweeen federal and state powers?(6 votes)
- There are numerous so called "Gun Control Cases" which rule that states (looking at you, New York and Illinois) can't deprive their citizens of their Second Amendment rights.
I'm not sure if this is what you meant, but I hope this helps to answer your question.(3 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] What we're
gonna do in this video is talk a little bit
more about federal powers versus state powers, and as
we've mentioned in other videos, this is a relevant
topic because even today you'll have Supreme Court
decisions being decided based on citing different
parts of the Constitution or various amendments that seem
to give one power or another more to the federal government
or to the state government. Another important appreciation
is the balance of power or the shifts of power
between federal and state. It has historically changed over time, so it isn't this fixed thing. So in a previous video, we talked about the enumerated powers that
the Constitution gives the federal government. In particular, we have talked
about the Commerce Clause that allows the federal
government "to regulate Commerce among the several states," which has turned out to be a
much farther-reaching power than maybe the drafters of
the Constitution intended. And then, the thing
that really gives power to even the enumerated powers is the necessary and proper clause. "To make all Laws which
shall be necessary and proper "for carrying into Execution
the foregoing Powers," and so this is what we talk about, this necessary and proper clause, creates a lot of implied powers. So you can imagine, this isn't, the necessary and proper
clause is not something that made the Antifederalists very happy. They were worried about power grabs by the federal government. And so you have the Bill of Rights which are the first 10 amendments. And the 9th and 10th
amendment in particular are Antifederalists' attempt to limit the federal government's power. So the 9th Amendment says, "The enumeration in the
Constitution, of certain rights, "shall not be construed to
deny or disparage others "retained by the people,"
and even more important, the 10th Amendment, and
this is really speaking to federal versus state powers,
"The powers not delegated "to the United States
by the Constitution," so not delegated to
the federal government, "nor prohibited by it,"
the federal government, "to the States, are reserved
to the States respectively, "or to the people," and
so you could view this as reserved powers for the states. It's an Antifederalist attempt to say, "Hey, you know, the federal
government can't just "do whatever it wants." It's trying to put a little bit of a check on the necessary and proper clause. So if you fast-forward to the period right after the Civil War, you
have the 13th Amendment, which bans slavery, and then
you have the 14th Amendment, which is trying to bring
slaves into society, allow them to be citizens, not just them but their descendants, and
this is in direct contradiction of the 1857 Dred Scott
decision that we'll talk about in other videos where the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that slaves and their
descendants are not considered American citizens and so
they don't have a right to petition the government,
but the 14th Amendment says, "All persons born or naturalized
in the United States, "and subject to the jurisdiction
thereof, are citizens "of the United States and of
the State wherein they reside. "No State shall make or enforce any law," and so this is actually
putting constraints on states, and so as we'll see, even
though this is in the context of the post-Civil War era,
because it's putting constraints on states, this is one of the amendments that's often cited that puts more power in the hands of the federal government. "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." The 14th Amendment has been very relevant in some very current debates. This notion of that any state, no state, can deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property without due process of law, this is often known as
the due process clause and it's this idea that no
state can really strip away some of the rights that
might be articulated in say The Bill of Rights,
"nor deny to any person "within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws." This is often known as the
equal protection clause. This is, you could view
it as a protection against some form of discrimination. And so even in very current debates around things like abortion
or same-sex marriage, much of the debate will center
around the 14th Amendment.