Dual Federalism And Dual Federalism In The United States

The United States of America is run under a federal system, which is to say that sovereignty is divided between a top-level, national, government and smaller units, in the case of the United States these smaller units are called states. According to the Constitution, the national government, commonly referred to as the federal government has supreme authority and its laws take precedence over laws created by the states or even localities. However, the superiority of federal laws over state laws does not render the states as legislative bodies ineffectual. States have found ways to utilize the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution which establishes federalism by granting powers to the states that are not delegated to the federal government in

The term Dual Federalism has been used to describe this time period. This term highlights the divide between the federal and state governments. There was little to no cooperation or collaboration between the national government and those of the states and localities.

This time period was also marked by the Nullification Doctrine in which states would declare federal laws null and void that states felt were unconstitutional. This doctrine was espoused by those heavily in favor of states rights. However, the Nullification Doctrine has never been upheld by any federal court and has infact been declared invalid by the Supreme Court in 1859. When the Wisconsin Supreme Court declared a federal law unconstitutional, they essentially declared the authority of the states to be supreme to that of the federal government. The Supreme Court of the United States held that such a declaration runs contrary to the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. Furthermore, they held that federal courts have the final say as to the interpretation of the Constitution and federal laws. By denying the the states the right to interpret the Constitution and federal laws and granting it exclusively to the government at the federal level, the dual nature of state and federal powers was

Such supporters held that the national government was a creation of the states and not the people. As such the federal government has no authority to pass any laws not specifically granted to it in the Constitution, especially those that conflicted with the rights of the states. A conflicting opinion is that the Constitution is a creation of the people and not the states. This seems to be supported by the very first words of the Preamble, “We the people.” These ideas clashed during the Webster/Hayne debate on Nullification. Hayne, arguing for state-central federalism, argued for “Liberty first and Unity afterwards.” Webster retorted with the famous quote “Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable.” These ideals would continue to be tested for decades to come before eventually coming to a head during the Civil