constitution-assignment
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Ball State University *
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Political Science
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Dec 6, 2023
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Uploaded by GrandAntelope2371
The Constitution Free Response Question Assignment
Use your newfound knowledge of the Constitution to complete the following free response
question.
The framers of the Constitution devised a federal system of government that affected the relationship between the national and state governments. a.
Compare state sovereignty under the Articles of Confederation and under the Constitution. b.
Explain how each of the following has been used to expand the power of the federal government over the states. •
Commerce clause •
Mandates c.
Explain how each of the following has played a role in the devolution of power from the national government to the states. •
Block grants •
Supreme Court decisions
1A: Under the Articles of Confederation, states were close to being fully sovereign with their main limitation being association with other states in the confederate government. States regulate their own currency, trade, and tax. Under the Constitution, states had limited and similar powers between them, making them lose their sovereignty. The federal government held to power to make a unified currency and regulated domestic and foreign trade
1B: Under the commerce clause, the federal government upholds the right to regulate all economic activity that occurs across the boundaries of states. This means that the federal government controls the flow of traffic in and out of states. This power is exclusive to the federal authority so that means states are not able to control the trade that occurs across them. Mandates are mandatory orders given from the federal government to the local government to assure a specific action is taken. An example of this would be the mask mandate on planes that
occurred when COVID-19 was widespread in the United States. Mandates allow for governments to assert immediate power over the states and take advantage of local enforcement.
1C: Block grants are grants given from the federal government to a state government (in this case) which do not have a directly specified use. This gives flexibility in state governments for
determing how the money should be used and for creating programs funded by the grant. This means that states are essentially able to use (with permission) government money for a large range of uses, and they do not have to disclose this the government in order to receive the grant.
Supreme court decisions can deem certain national laws unconstitutional and allow states to decide whether or not they want the law to be implemented at their scale. This decreases government interventions in the state lawmaking process and gives states the power to decide whether or not a certain law should stand within their jurisdiction.
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