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Basic Constitutional Concepts
are the unspecified powers that the people or the States did not delegate
or surrender to Congress or the general government, and reserved to
themselves. This reservation of various powers to the States was reaffirmed in the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, which provides that
‘‘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 the
people.’’ The Tenth Amendment is a rule of interpretation not only for
the Federal courts, but also for Congress and the President. At one point
in our history, the reserved powers were often regarded as the exclusive
powers of the States. As such, they served to limit the powers of the Federal government. Article I, Section 8, for example, empowers Congress
‘‘to regulate commerce among the several States,’’ suggesting, therefore,
that local commerce, wholly within a single State, could not be regulated
by the Federal government. The Supreme Court has rejected this interpretation, however, and the Tenth Amendment is no longer interpreted
by the courts as a limitation on Federal power. Today, it usually makes
no constitutional difference whether an act of Congress governs an institution or activity otherwise reserved to the States. For this reason, federalism has weakened over the years, and much power formerly controlled by the States has been shifted to the central government. This
reallocation of power is known as the centralization or nationalization of
power, a phenomenon that is praised by some and criticized by others.
The Supremacy Clause
In reviewing the relationship between the Federal and State governments,
we should also note the significance of the ‘‘Supremacy Clause’’ of the
Constitution. Article VI provides that,
This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made
in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the
land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in
the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
This key provision, rarely found in other constitutions, establishes the
supremacy of the Constitution over all Federal laws, State constitutions,