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(S) Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 original states of the United States of America that served as its first constitution. It was approved, after much debate, by the Second Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, and sent to the states for ratification.
The Articles of Confederation created a weak central government, allowing the states more power in what they chose to do and allowed their citizens to do -
(F) Constitutional Convention
The official purpose of the Constitutional Convention was to amend the Articles of Confederation. It had, by that time, become clear that the Articles of Confederation were not a good enough constitution for the new nation.
This was the start of the current United States Constitution, which features a much stronger national government than what was created during the Articles of Confederation, and led to a sense of uniformity among previously separate states -
(F) Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3)
The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.
This, if used with a loose definition of the Constitution, provides Congress with the almost unlimited power over the creation of laws as long as they help aide their other responsibilities -
(F) Elastic Clause or Necessary and Proper Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 18)
A section of the United States Constitution that enables Congress to make the laws required for the exercise of its other powers established by the Constitution.
This gives Congress power over the states to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, which was an issue with the Articles and provides an even greater sense of uniformity among the states -
(S) 10th Amendment
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
This gives the states some power within the Constitution, with powers not being specifically delegated to Congress being given to them, which lets them interpret different scenarios as they wish -
(F) McCulloch v. Maryland
McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316, was a U.S. Supreme Court decision that defined the scope of the U.S. Congress's legislative power and how it relates to the powers of American state legislatures. The dispute in McCulloch involved the legality of the national bank and a tax that the state of Maryland imposed on it.
This decision gave the federal government supremacy over the states with the unanimous decision that Maryland could not tax the National Bank -
(F) Gibbons v. Ogden
Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1, was a landmark decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the power to regulate interstate commerce, granted to Congress by the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, encompassed the power to regulate navigation
The federal government was once again given more power over the states with the ruling that the national government had exclusive power over interstate commerce, negating any state laws on the matter -
(F) Formation of Land-Grant Colleges
Land-grant universities, American institutions of higher learning that were established under the first Morrill Act (1862). This act was passed by the U.S. Congress and was named for the act’s sponsor, Vermont congressman Justin S. Morrill.
While the states were the ones to benefit most from the creation of these institutions, the ones who had the power and money to create them were on the national level -
(F) Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War began primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over slavery.
The Civil War divided the nation but also created a stronger national government due to a need for unity. With strong executive decisions during this time and the unity expressed by states under the Union, there was an increase in overall federal power -
(F) 14th Amendment
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Federal government is supreme. -
(F) Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Approved July 2, 1890, The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was the first Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was the first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts
The federal government used this act to limit monopolies in the United States, overriding any laws on the state level regarding the issue -
(F) Pure Food and Drug Act
The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 prohibited the sale of misbranded or adulterated food and drugs in interstate commerce and laid a foundation for the nation's first consumer protection agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
The Pure Food and Drug Act was issued nationally and once again overrode any state regulations regarding the issues regarding food, and also created another public agency that would monitor actions taken by the states -
(F) 16th Amendment
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
Congress was given the power to collect income tax from the people through this amendment, and the states did not have and do not have the authority to choose not to comply -
(F) Gitlow v. New York
Gitlow v. New York, case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 8, 1925, that the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protection of free speech, which states that the federal “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech,” applied also to state governments. The decision was the first in which the Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause required state and federal governments to be held to the same standards in regulating speech.
S. Incorporation -
(F) The New Deal
The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1936. It responded to needs for relief, reform, and recovery from the Great Depression.
The New Deal was a strong national government program system that enacted many laws and reformations associated with the Great Depression. Looked at states as parts of the whole that is the United States -
(F) Korematsu v. United States
Korematsu v. United States, 323 U.S. 214, was a landmark United States Supreme Court case upholding the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II
This case gave the federal government more power, with the ruling that the decisions made by the federal government showed no racial bias and that it was all strategic planning and precaution. The Supreme Court, national level themselves, backed the U.S. government. -
(F) Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, and racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations
This act by the federal government outlawed discrimination across the United States, regardless of a particular states’ history or current ideology, -
(F) Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction
In this case, a Texas law was overruled and deemed unconstitutional, and the national government was what created the standard across the U.S. for this situation. -
(S) Election of Ronald Reagan
The election was held on November 4, 1980. Ronald Reagan and running mate George H. W. Bush beat Carter by almost 10 percentage points in the popular vote. ... The electoral college vote was a landslide, with 489 votes (representing 44 states) for Reagan and 49 for Carter (representing six states and Washington, D.C.)
Ronald Reagan was a proponent of Devolution, which returned power to the states. -
(F) Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability.
Another national act enacted federally, this law prevents disability discrimination regardless of what laws a state may already have -
(S) United States v. Lopez
United States v. Alfonso D. Lopez, Jr., 514 U.S. 549, was a landmark case of the United States Supreme Court concerning the Commerce Clause. It was the first case since 1937 in which the Court held that Congress had exceeded its power to legislate under the Commerce Clause
While in violation of a federal law, Lopez was not in violation of the Commerce Clause, and Congress under the federal government was found to have overstepped -
(S) 104th Congress
The One Hundred Fourth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives
The 104th Congress had a Republican majority, and helped with the idea brought up by Reagan in the 80s for devolution, or giving power back to the states -
(S) Printz v. United States
Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898, was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that certain interim provisions of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act violated the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
This decision stated that Congress had overstepped it bounds and that state legislatures are “not subject to federal direction.” The Necessary and Proper Clause did not justify their actions over the states. -
(F) No Child Left Behind
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a federal law that provides money for extra educational assistance for poor children in return for improvements in their academic progress. NCLB is the most recent version of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
This law created for all states was enacted and increased the federal government's role in education, something that was originally up to the states -
(F) Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare)
Provides consumers with subsidies (“premium tax credits”) that lower costs for households with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level
This federal law mandated that all citizens have a health care plan or pay a tax, regardless of residence, which in turn increased the federal government’s influence and power in healthcare