- [Instructor] What we're going to do in this video
is talk a little bit more about federal powers
versus state powers.
And as we've mentioned in other videos,
this is a very relevant topic because, even today,
you'll have Supreme Court decisions being decided
based on citing different parts of the Constitution
or various Amendments that seem
to give one power or another more to the federal government
or to the state government.
Another important appreciation is the balance of power
or the shifts of power between federal and state.
It has historically changed over time,
so it isn't this fixed thing.
So in a previous video,
we talked about the enumerated powers
that the Constitution gives the federal government.
In particular, we have talked about the Commerce Clause
that allows the federal government
"To regulate Commerce among the several States,"
which has turned out to be a much farther reaching power
than maybe the drafters of the Constitution intended.
And then, the thing that really gives power
to even the enumerated powers
is the Necessary and Proper Clause,
"To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper
"for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers."
And so this is what we talk about,
this Necessary and Proper Clause
creates a lot of implied powers.
So you could imagine, this isn't,
the Necessary and Proper Clause is not something
that made the Anti-Federalists very happy.
They were worried about power grabs
by the federal government.
And so shortly after you have the ratification
of the Constitution,
you have the ratification of the Bill of Rights,
which are the first 10 Amendments.
And the Ninth and Tenth Amendment, in particular,
are Anti-Federalists' attempt
to limit the federal government's power.
So the Ninth Amendment says,
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights,
"shall not be construed to deny
"or disparage others retained by the people."
And even more important, the Tenth Amendment,
and this is really speaking to federal versus state powers,
"The powers not delegated to the United States
"by the Constitution,"
so not delegated to the federal government,
"nor prohibited by it," the federal government,
"to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,
"or to the people."
And so you could view this as reserved powers
for the states.
It's an Anti-Federalist attempt to say, hey, you know,
the federal government can't just do whatever it wants.
It's trying to put a little bit of a check
on the Necessary and Proper Clause.
So if you fast-forward to the period
right after the Civil War,
you have the Thirteenth Amendment,
which bans slavery.
And then you have the Fourteenth Amendment,
which is trying to bring slaves into society,
allow them to be citizens,
not just them, but their descendants.
And this is in direct contradiction
of the 1857 Dred Scott decision
that we'll talk about in other videos,
where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that slaves and their descendants
are not considered American citizens,
and so they don't have a right to petition the government.
But the Fourteenth Amendment says,
"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."
And so this is actually putting constraints on states.
And so, as we'll see, even though this is in the context
of the post-Civil War era,
because it's putting constraints on states,
this is one of the Amendments that's often cited that puts
more power in the hands of the federal government.
"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."
And so since the time
that the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted,
this notion of equal protection under the law,
that no state can "make or enforce laws which shall abridge
"the privileges or immunities of citizens."
And the Fourteenth Amendment has been very relevant
in a whole series of cases in modern time,
a lot of cases around discrimination.
If there's a right that is given in one state,
do the other states have to adopt it?
You can look around right now,
there's significant social debates about things like
same-sex marriage or things like abortion,
and those cases often center around
the Fourteenth Amendment.