| Term | Definition |
|---|
| What are concurrent powers, shared by the national and state governments? | The power to tax, spend money, and create courts are examples |
| What is the police power? | This "reserved" power gives states authority to legislate for the protection of the health, morals, safety and welfare of the people. |
| What is incorporation of the 14th amendment (due process clause, equal protection clause, and privileges and immunities clause)? | This was ultimately used to extend most Bill of Rights protections to the states. |
| What is the power of states to nullify federal laws that the states viewed as violating the Constitution. | James Madison and Thomas Jefferson both declared that states had this power under the Constitution – but they didn't get away with it. |
| What is the supremacy clause. | This says that when in conflict, federal law overrules state law. |
| What is dual federalism? | A view that the powers of the states and federal government are distinctly separate, and each is supreme in its own sphere. |
| What are categorical grants? | This form of federal assistance gives very specific purposes for which the money must be used. |
| What are unfunded mandates? (The Clean Air Act is the example that shows up most often on the test). | When the federal government tells states they must do something, but fail to provide money to accomplish the task |
| What are block grants? | These give the states much more leeway to decide how to spend federal money. |
| What is marble cake federalism – the federal governments and states share responsibility and decision- making (most often the feds set guidelines but the states administer the programs.) | Another term for cooperative federalism – it uses a baking metaphor. |
| What did the Marshall court rule in Gibbons v. Ogden? | The commerce clause prohibits states from establishing monopolies on public waterways – and has real teeth. |
| What is a famous quote from McCulloch v. Maryland, which upheld the National Bank, the necessary and proper (or elastic) clause and the supremacy clause? | "The power to tax is the power to destroy". |
| What United States v. Lopez? | It stated that there were limits to the commerce clause – which did not give Congress the power to regulate guns near schools. |
| What is the Civil Rights Act of 1964? | A case requiring Ollie's Barbecue to change its ways upheld this federal law, on commerce clause grounds. |
| What is the position that the commerce clause had only limited applications and could not be used in many cases to regulate industry (dual federalism)? | The "slaughterhouse cases" were among the many Supreme Court cases that took this position in the late nineteenth and early 20th century |
| What is the Americans with Disabilities Act? | It required states and local governments to spend vast sums of money retrofitting public buildings and public transportation. |
| What is the Clean Air Act? | It regulates automobile and factory emissions. |
| What is the Defense of Marriage Act? | Congress passed this in defiance of the full faith and credit clause. |
| What is the Motor Voter Act, requiring states to allow individuals to register to vote while obtaining a driver's license (it had less impact on turnout than most people expected)? | This required many states to change their voter registration procedures significantly. |
| What is the law depriving states of 10% of federal highway funds if they do not raise the legal drinking age to 21? | South Dakota challenged this law in the Supreme Court, but lost. |
| What is a confederation (as opposed to a unitary or federal government)? | A system of government where the states have more power than the national government – Switzerland's about the only one left. |
| What was the Devolution Revolution, or more focus on giving powers to the states through block grants and greater flexibility. | This was part of Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America" in 1994. |
| What is the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Act (welfare reform), which replaced AFDC and gave states much more control? | The most famous recent example of Congress giving more power and flexibility over a program to the states. |
| What is Medicaid? | This medical assistance program for the needy receives both state and national funding, and is the fastest growing item in many states' budgets. |
| What is that the states are the "laboratories of democracy"? | Justice Louis Brandeis gave this famous defense of federalism. |
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