hey there welcome back to heimler's history in the last video we began talking about federalism and in this video we're going to keep talking about federalism especially how the sharing of power between the federal and state governments has shifted over time sometimes more power is in the hands of big daddy government and other times it's in the hands of the state so we need to figure out why so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked with them let's get to it so in this video we're just trying to do one thing explain how the appropriate balance of power between national and state governments has been interpreted differently over time okay now just as a reminder that sharing of power between state and federal governments is called federalism and the degree to which the power shifts between those two entities comes down to a few constitutional provisions and two required supreme court cases so let's start with the constitution the first provision for federalism you need to know is the tenth amendment basically it says that any power that the constitution does not explicitly give to the federal government is reserved for the states and that not surprisingly is why we call these reserved powers now an example of a reserve power would be the regulation of trade within a state it's the federal congress which has the power to regulate trade between states but only a state can regulate trade within its own borders okay the next constitutional provision for federalism you need to know is the 14th amendment now this was passed during the reconstruction era of u.s history right after the civil war and you may remember that as a result of the 13th amendment slavery was abolished but those rascally southern states still found a lot of ways they can continue to keep their society segregated and uphold the hierarchy of whites over blacks even though the rights of black citizens were now protected by the bill of rights that didn't matter all that much because remember the bill of rights protects citizens from the federal government not state government and so here's the hair and the biscuit newly emancipated black citizens had all the protections in the world federally but states could still basically violate their rights with immunity so that's where the 14th amendment comes in this amendment basically applied the bill of rights to the state and so when this amendment was passed it meant that not only did a citizen have the protection of their rights against federal intrusion they were protected against the states too okay the next constitutional provision for federalism that you need to know is the commerce clause in article 1 section 8. this is the clause that gives congress the authority to regulate commerce among the states and has been used over time to justify federal power sometimes at the expense of state power and we'll get into that a minute when we talk about supreme court cases okay the next constitutional provision for federalism you need to know is the necessary and proper clause also known as the elastic clause also in article 1 section 8. now you might remember from a previous video where i talked about the enumerated powers of congress and those are powers which are explicitly listed in the constitution as belonging to the federal government but the section ends with the necessary improper clause which basically says that congress also has the power to pass any law which shall be deemed necessary and proper to the carrying out of their enumerated powers that's why it's also called the elastic clause the powers listed in article 1 section 8 are like a leather belt that keeps a tight grip on federal power but the necessary improper clause gives congress a nice comfy pair of sweats and says yeah you could let that belly out it was our boy alexander hamilton who invoked this clause to establish the first national bank and if you've read article 1 section 8 you will no doubt notice that congress was not given the authority to establish a bank but it does say that congress has the power to tax and coin money and regulate interstate commerce so hamilton argued that it was therefore necessary improper that congress established a bank and they did now there are a lot of other constitutional provisions we could talk about but i just want to talk about one more namely the full faith and credit clause in article four this clause basically means that each state must respect each other's laws so for example if i got my car here in georgia and drove to california my driver's license will be recognized as valid in every state i pass through without the full faith and credit clause i'd have to get a new license every time i crossed a state line this clause also means that my marriage in georgia must be recognized in every other state as well but here's where the big hairy federalism part comes in supposing one state has legalized same-sex marriage but another state has not so a couple gets married in hawaii for example and then moves to alabama if same-sex marriage is not recognized by alabama law does that state have to comply with the full faith and credit clause well in 1996 congress passed the defense of marriage act or doma which gave states the right not to recognize the marital status of same-sex couples so in that case we have states asserting their power but then in 2015 in the case of bergafell vs hodges power was shifted back to the federal side of the ledger because this decision maintained that marriage no matter the gender of the parties involved was a fundamental right that could not be infringed upon by the states okay now we need to get into two required supreme court cases that illustrate the shifting of power between federal and state governments and because these are required cases each case has its own video which goes way more into depth than i'll go into here the first case is mcculloch versus maryland in 1819 so in the second iteration of the bank of the united states congress established a branch in maryland the maryland legislature was like you so crazy and slapped a big fat tax on the bank and when the clerk refused to pay that tax the case ended up before the supreme court maryland argued that there was nothing in the constitution that gave congress the power to establish a branch of the national bank in the boundaries of a state but mcculloch's lawyers argued that by virtue of the necessary and proper clause yes they did have the power to do so and as it turns out the court agreed saying that the necessary and proper clause implied certain powers for the federal government even if they were not explicitly mentioned in the constitution but going even further chief justice john marshall noted that because of the supremacy clause of the constitution federal law will always trump state law when the two are in conflict so in terms of federalism it's hard to find a case that tipped the balance of power more towards the federal government than mcculloch vs maryland but now let's look at a case that tipped the balance of power in favor of the states and for that let me introduce you to the united states versus lopez in 1995. now in the 80s and 90s congress was very concerned about gun violence and so they passed the gun free school zones act of 1990 which prohibited guns on school property now remember this was a federal law and again according to the constitution congress has no power to do such a thing because it is not listed among the enumerated powers but their justification wasn't the necessary and proper clause this time rather it was the commerce clause and the reasoning went like this if guns are on school property then the learning environment will be diminished and then neighborhoods will grow worse and that will ultimately hurt interstate commerce to which i say and so when a kid brought a gun to school in texas he was charged and convicted under this federal law and when it came up before the supreme court the justices this time ruled in favor of the states they made clear that gun laws are the domain of the states and there is no way that gun control can ever be linked to interstate commerce okay thanks for watching here's the view packet right here if you want help getting an a in your class and a five on your exam in maine if this video helped you i've got more videos on unit one right over here if you want me to keep making these videos then by all means subscribe and i shall oblige heimler out