AF-separation-of-powers-Digital-20 - Flipbook - Page 23
T
he structure of state governments mirrors the federal
structure – that is, state governments are also
comprised of Legislative, executive, and Judicial
branches. States create legislation and enact state
laws, handle and manage budgets and taxation, and
have courts that deal with civil and criminal issues as
they arise. Like the federal system, there are checks
and balances among the branches to prevent abuse of
power, and there are rules for impeachment.
In the Constitution, Article IV, §4 expressly states the
relation between the federal government and state
governments: “The United States shall guarantee to
every State in this Union a Republican Form of
Government, and shall protect each of them against
Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of
the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be
convened) against domestic Violence.”
Constitutional Rights Reserved To The States
The Ninth and Tenth Amendments to our Constitution
– the final two amendments in our Bill of Rights,
combine to prohibit our federal government from
exercising powers not specifically conferred by the
Constitution. To that end, these two amendments,
coupled together, form a catch-all clarifying that
America’s federal government shall be limited in scope
and power and, further, any power or right that is not
specifically conferred to the federal government in the
Constitution is inherently vested in the states or the
people.
Ninth Amendment: The enumeration in the
Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed
to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Tenth Amendment: The powers not delegated to the
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by
it to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people.
Certain framers of the Constitution believed that a Bill
of Rights was not necessary to limit the powers of the
central or federal government they envisioned. After
the Constitution was ratified, several congressional
representatives proposed amendments to “expressly”
deny the existence of implied federal government
powers and forbid the federal government from
unjustifiably expanding its reach.
James Madison, the primary drafter of both the Ninth
and Tenth Amendments, stated that “it was impossible
to confine a Government to the exercise of express
powers; there must necessarily be admitted powers by
implication, unless the Constitution descended to
recount every minutia.”
The Tenth Amendment was crafted, therefore, to resolve
the different positions, and Madison introduced the
amendment reasoning that it “…can be no harm in
making such a declaration…” And so, the Tenth
Amendment serves to emphasize the notion that the
inclusion of the Bill of Rights does not change the
nature of the federal government created by the
Constitution. It remains a government of limited
powers. The Tenth Amendment is the underlying
principle that reserved powers and rights to the states or
to the people with the goal of limiting the federal
government’s control and reducing the risk of unbridled
corruption. Noteworthy: A number of states ratified the
Constitution only with the understanding that it would
quickly be amended to include a Bill of Rights.
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