Your Opinion: Powers of states

Dear Editor:

A recent letter in this column asked why states even make laws since the United States Supreme Court may strike them down and, more broadly, "What happened to state sovereign rights"? These questions can be addressed both legally and politically.

Legally, the power of the Supreme Court to strike down state laws and constitutional provisions is pretty clear. Article VI of the U.S. Constitution reads: "This Constitution and the laws of the United States ... shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding."

Any state constitutional act or law that conflicts with the U.S. Constitution is void. That's the law of the land. This does not, however, mean the states are powerless to enact meaningful laws. The Tenth Amendment provides that all powers "not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states."

That leaves a lot of powers for the states. One such power is the "police power," the power to preserve and protect the public health, safety, morals and welfare. The states can enact laws to these purposes just as long as they do not conflict with the U.S. Constitution or U.S. laws. That leaves a lot of ground. Think of our state criminal codes, tax codes, social welfare laws, etc.

Politically, the states gave up their individual sovereignty when they ratified the U.S. Constitution. The one big attempt to reassert state sovereignty was defeated in the Civil War, 150 years ago. The original 13 colonies first tried a confederation, whereby the states retained their sovereignty while creating a national government to act as their instrument. The national government had few powers and the states went their own ways. There was no national currency, state tariffs impeded commerce among the states, and state laws conflicted with no means of resolving conflicts. That experiment failed, and the states met in Philadelphia in 1787 to fix the situation.

The result was our present system consisting of a national government with specified powers and state governments to which all other powers are reserved. There is a national judiciary empowered to maintain consistency by requiring that both federal and state laws be consistent with the Constitution.

It's a good system.

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