SS.7.C.3.4

Identify the relationship and division of powers between the federal & state governments.

 

U.S. Constitution was written because of concerns about the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation. The two major weaknesses were:

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1. The national government had very little power. There was a national Congress, but it did not have the power to tax the people to raise money, and without money could not keep a national army or navy. Instead, they would have to ask the states to contribute troops if there was a war.

2. Because there was no strong national government, the states could act as if they were independent nations. This meant that the states could have independent relationships with other countries (such as making treaties or trade agreements). They also got into arguments with other states (such as the use of rivers or lakes that bordered more than one state).

 

The Articles of Confederation did not encourage national unity (togetherness) or a sense of nationhood among the states.

 

The U.S. Constitution was written because the Founding Fathers wanted to solve these problems. The founders had a big goal. They needed to limit state power (because the states had independent power under the Articles of Confederation), while at the same time creating a national government with limited power. They created a system of federalism, where the national government had its own powers, shared some powers with the states, and gave the states some of their own powers.

 

The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution was added as the last Amendment in the Bill of Rights. The Tenth Amendment says: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”.

 

Because the writers of the Constitution were concerned about giving too much power to the national government, they decided to list the specific powers of Congress (enumerated/delegated powers). When the necessary and proper clause was added to the Constitution, it was so broad that it allowed Congress also to have many powers that were not listed but were “necessary and proper” for Congress to uses its enumerated/delegated powers.

 

The Tenth Amendment does not list any specific powers. Instead, it broadly says that all powers not given to the national government are reserved for the states and the people. This leaves the meaning of reserved powers open to interpretation in the states.

 

It is important to keep in mind that even though the Tenth Amendment reserves powers for the states, no state is allowed to make laws or take actions that violate the Constitution. In the Constitution, this is called the Supremacy Clause. It means that the Constitution is the “Supreme Law of the Land.”

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SS.7.C.3.13

Compare the constitutions of the United States and Florida.

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After the U.S. Constitution was ratified (approved by the states), the states wrote or amended their own state constitutions. Article IV, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution states: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government”. Because the U.S. Constitution served as a guideline, many state constitutions look very similar to the national constitution, including the Florida Constitution. The U.S. and Florida constitutions both have a preamble (an introduction that states the purpose and goals of government), articles (sections that describe the powers and functions of the government), and amendments (changes that have been made to the constitution). While the basic outline of the U.S. Constitution and the Florida Constitution are the same, the contents of the two documents have major differences.

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Below is a brief comparison of the major similarities and differences between the two documents.