U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS, SPRING 2011

FEDERALISM: DAY ONE

OSY chapter 3; Woll 11 (Bryce), 12 (McCulloch v. Maryland), 13 (Gibbons v. Ogden)

Wednesday, February 23

main types of powers – enumerated, implied, concurrent, reserve (police), denied; OSY p. 85 chart is a useful summary of how powers are distributed

key constitutional provisions: necessary and proper clause (Article I, section 8; often called elastic clause), supremacy clause (Article VI), Article IV (see next point), Tenth Amendment

defining relations among the states (sometimes called horizontal federalism) defined in Article IV: full faith and credit clause, privileges and immunities clause, interstate compacts

Why are these clauses important for the average citizen?

Why are they useful for states?

key historical developments: McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), Barron v. Baltimore (1833), dual federalism, 16^th (federal income tax) and 17^th (direct election of senators) Amendments, cooperative federalism (marble cake, not layer cake), New Deal, New Federalism/Reagan Revolution, Devolution Revolution, unfunded mandates, preemption, recent Supreme Court decisions limiting federal/congressional powers over the states, progressive federalism

How does McCulloch v. Maryland establish national supremacy?

Why is Gibbons v. Ogden important for understanding federalism?

Why did the U.S. shift to cooperative federalism in the 1930s?

How did President Reagan change the debate about the federal government’s role with his New Federalism in the 1980s?

positive aspects of federalism: In Woll 11, James Bryce explains several advantages of federalism, for the nation as a whole and for local and state governments.

Which condition created by federalism (Bryce’s points 4 through 8) seem most important or relevant for state/local governments, and why?

TYPES OF FEDERAL GRANTS-IN-AID

Most of these grant types arise in the Cooperative Federalism period (post-New Deal); this list expands slightly on OSY’s discussion of grants-in-aid

Categorical: specific $ amount, specific purpose (e.g. building or other project, sometimes research); includes grants by Congress and by federal agencies; can include some matching formula, e.g. the interstate highways were funded as 90% federal with a 10% state match

Earmark: a categorical grant specified by a member of Congress in a bill (one way to bring $ home to district); recently Congress has reduced use of the earmark

Block grant: specific amount of $ given in broad categories, few strings attached; gives states flexibility but the federal government still dictates how much $ states receive; Reagan Administration

Revenue sharing: gives $ directly back to states, no strings; introduced by President Nixon in early 1970s but ended in 1986; good for states (some received more than others), no federal control over what states did with the money; many states still practice revenue sharing with local governments

Which method(s) of distributing money would states prefer and why?

Which method(s) would Congress prefer and why?

Which method(s) would Democrats generally prefer? Republicans? (and why?)

Unfunded mandate: No specific $ amount (and sometimes no $ at all), forces states to comply with federal law or face penalties; often called coercive federalism – speed limit, drinking age, drunk driving standard, environment, homeland security

Why do unfunded mandates drive the states crazy?

FEDERALISM IN ACTION: AN EXERCISE

To help reinforce knowledge of which level of government is responsible for what activities within American federalism, determine for each of these situations which level of government – federal or state/local – has the power to deal with the situation, according to the Constitution’s description of powers granted to the federal government, state governments, or both. Ideally you should be able to make specific reference to the Constitution and/or OSY chapter 3 to support each answer.

We will discuss the answers in class, and a summary of correct answers to these exercises will be posted to this handout on the course website – click HERE for the answer summary.

1. The date and voting procedures to be used for the City of St. Peter city council elections on September 13, 2011.

2. The right of a drug manufacturing company exclusively to sell a new drug to treat diabetes.

3. Correcting unsafe working conditions that endanger employee safety at a small, private liberal arts college somewhere in south central Minnesota.

4. Individuals trying to sell $500 Super Bowl tickets for $2,500 apiece (in other words, scalping tickets). Consider a) selling the tickets right outside the actual location of the Super Bowl, and b) selling the tickets via the Internet.

5. Banning guns from within 1,000 feet of all elementary and secondary school playgrounds in the United States.

6. Establishing a minimum price to be paid to producers of milk and other dairy products.