Constitutionally Vested Federal/State/Local/Individual Power

The United States is a confederate republic, which Federalist Paper #9 defines “as ‘an assemblage of societies’ or an association of two or more States into one nation. The extent and objects of federal authority are discretionary. The member States can remain separate, constitutionally existing for local purposes. They can even subordinate their authority to the authority of the union. It will be a confederacy.”

The United States divides governmental power between the federal government, state governments, local governments, and individual citizens. The Anti-Federalist Papers stated the overriding fear of the opponents of ratifying the Constitution—the federal government would usurp the powers of the States, local governments, and individuals.

And that is what happened.

The U.S. Constitution specially blocks this abuse of power by the federal government. However, “defining the limits of each branch in the Constitution is not enough. Encroachments can lead to a tyrannical concentration of all the powers of government in the same hands.” (Federalist Paper #48)

Just as the police and troopers enforce our traffic laws, the citizens of the United States are responsible for enforcing the United States Constitution. “The people are the natural guardians of the Constitution.” (Federalist Paper #16)

“We, the People” have quit enforcing the Constitutional limits on the federal government. This is not a new problem. It’s been a problem since the ratification of the Constitution. We need to understand what the Constitution actually says, including the limits on the federal government, before we can enforce it. Therefore, I will provide a brief summary of the federal government’s powers. It is important to note that if the federal government uses a power that is not listed in the Constitution, that is an abuse of power.

Federalist Papers #41-44 discuss the powers of the federal government.

The classes of federal power relate to the following issues:

1. Security against foreign danger.

2. Regulation of interactions with foreign nations.

3. Maintain harmony and interactions among the States.

4. Miscellaneous objects of general utility.

5. Restraint of the States from certain injurious acts.

6. Provisions giving effectiveness to these powers.

The first class of powers secures against foreign danger. The federal government has the power to declare war, raise and equip armies and fleets, and regulate and call forth the militia. And to pay for the military, it has the power to tax.

“The federal government’s second class of powers regulates how the country deals with foreign nations. The federal government will: make trea­ties, send and receive ambassadors, ministers, and consuls, define and punish piracies, felonies on the high seas and against the law of nations, and regulate foreign commerce (after 1808, it may prohibit the importation of slaves; until then, it will charge a duty of ten dollars per head to discourage such importations).” #42

The third class of powers provide for harmony among the States: “regulate commerce among the States and the Indian tribes, coin and regulate the value of money, punish counterfeiting coins and securities of the United States, fix the standard of weights and measures, make a uniform rule of naturalization and uniform laws of bank­ruptcy, prescribe the way that public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of each State will be proved and the effect they will have in other States, and establish post offices and post roads.” #42

The fourth class of powers includes: copyrights and patents, the federal capital, other federal property, the definition and punishment for treason, the creation of new states, the congressional regulation of U.S. territory, the guarantee of a republican government in each state, protecting the states against invasion, protecting the states against internal violence, paying the Confederacy’s debts, amending the Constitution, and the ratification procedure of the new Constitution.

The fifth class of provisions restricts State authority: "No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.” [Article 1, section 10]

The sixth and last class consists of the powers and provisions that give efficacy to all the rest. These fall into four categories:

1. Make necessary and proper laws

2. Federal laws supreme

3. Oath to support Constitution

4. Executive, judicial federal powers

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Comparing the federal government’s Constitutional powers, as defined by this brief description, with the actual powers that it has used shows us what has gone wrong. It is now up to us, the citizens of the United States to demand that the federal government stop its abuse of power.

All quotes from: The Federalist Papers: Modern English Edition Two, 2008.