Federal Limitations on State and Local Government

This paper will discuss the most important limitations placed on state and local government policies by the federal government and federal judiciary. The first part of the paper will discuss the general relationship between state and federal government in the United States. The second part of the paper will examine how state jurisdiction is limited with respect to welfare. The third part of the paper will show how state and local governments are restricted with regard to education. The fourth part of the paper will examine how states are restricted in the area of drugs. The fifth part of the paper will discuss the limitations placed upon states with respect to environmental regulation. The last part of the paper will briefly look at the limitations in the area of abortion.

The system of government in the United States is a federalist one; that is, the federal and state governments coexist. The U.S. Constitution grants the federal government only limited powers, which are enumerated within the text of the Constitution. In contrast, state governments hold the general "police power" to protect the safety and general welfare of state residents. This power is the inherent one which is generally associated with governments. Therefore, an action by a state government is valid under federal law unless it violates a specific provision of the U.S. Constitution. An action by the federal government, on the other hand

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but it also held that such an education was important enough to require more than just a rational relation between the state's action and a legitimate interest. In a case where Texas attempted to deny free education for illegal alien children, the Court held that the denial must be shown to further some substantial state interest (Plyler v. Doe, 1982). In contrast to welfare and education, the federal government has exerted direct control over drugs. This control has taken two forms: control over the production and distribution of drugs and control over the sale of illegal drugs. There are two bases for this control, the powers granted by the Constitution to regulate interstate commerce and to raise revenue through taxation. The commerce power has been used to justify the regulation of legal drugs in the United States. Thus, the federal government determines which drugs can be offered for sale in the United States and controls the process by which drugs are certified for distribution and sale (Gunther, 1985, pp. 154-55). The power to tax has been used as the justification for the enactment of laws which effectively criminalize the distribution and sale of illegal narcotics, an area which would otherwise fall within the gen
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Approximate Word count = 1838
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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