Justice O'Connor in New York v. United States modeled a classic structure:
States are not mere political subdivisions of the United States. State governments are neither regional offices nor administrative agencies of the Federal Government. The positions occupied by state officials appear nowhere on the Federal Government's most detailed organizational chart. The Constitution instead "leaves to the several States a residuary and inviolable sovereignty," The Federalist No. 39, reserved explicitly to the States by the Tenth Amendment.
The holding in New York, that Congress may not ''commandeer'' state regulatory processes by ordering states to enact or administer a federal regulatory program, applied a limitation on congressional power previously recognized.
This perspective of Federalism retains characteristics also known as trias politica. The model was first developed in ancient Greece and came into widespread use by the Roman republic. In this model of government, the state is divided into branches or estates. Each estate has separate and independent powers and areas of responsibility. The normal division of estates is into an executive, legislative and judiciary.Proponents of separation of powers believe that it protects liberty and democracy and avoids tyranny. Critics of separation of powers question whether it indeed does protect liberty, and historically point out that model of government that it may slows down the process.
The founding fathers of the United States, in order to quell concerns about a centralized federal government imposing tyranny, incorporated the characteristics of trias politicia with the States and Commonwealths with a dual set of constitutional officers. The expressed and enumerated rights of the Federal government , and each of its branches, their authority and limitations were present in the Constitution recently ratified by the States. The Federal government would remain as it was composed and without amendment but for the " The Bill of Rights as " rights of the people"- and thereafter, "the remainder the rights the States"-.
So upon the States came "reserved rights"-. These have generally been in public safety, health and welfare of people, and other sovereign rights. But the rights of the States are limited by the Tenth Amendment itself.: "nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
One prohibition exists in the 1982 amendment to the Voter Rights amendment provided:
Section 1973aa provides: Application of prohibition to other States; "test or device" defined(a) No citizen shall be denied, because of his failure to comply with any test or device, the right to vote in any Federal, State, or local election conducted in any State or political subdivision of a State.
(b) As used in this section, the term "test or device" means any requirement that a person as a prerequisite for voting or registration for voting (1) demonstrate the ability to read, write, understand, or interpret any matter, (2) demonstrate any educational achievement or his knowledge of any particular subject, (3) possess good moral character, or (4) prove his qualifications by the voucher of registered voters or members of any other class.
Title 42, Section 1973 (h) provides: Congressional finding and declaration of policy against enforced payment of poll taxes as a device to impair voting rights.The Congress finds that the requirement of the payment of a poll tax as a precondition to voting (i) precludes persons of limited means from voting or imposes unreasonable financial hardship upon such persons as a precondition to their exercise of the franchise, (ii) does not bear a reasonable relationship to any legitimate State interest in the conduct of elections, and (iii) in some areas has the purpose or effect of denying persons the right to vote because of race or color. Upon the basis of these findings, Congress declares that the constitutional right of citizens to vote is denied or abridged in some areas by the requirement of the payment of a poll tax as a precondition to voting.
The state's powers for a license requirement is as much a truism as the amendment providing . A license is a payment of a tax, or fee affording and individual or company a priviledge, for which no general right exists. While licensure statutes promote business and performances standards, assure a public confidence, and provide safeguards in public safety and health, relative to a qualification for public office , it constitutes beyond the State's limitations. It is " invidious discrimination"""a classification which is arbitrary, irrational, and not reasonably related to a legitimate purpose. (McLaughlin v Florida; 379 US
In this case, the Tenth Amendment powers are limited by the Twenty-fourth Amendment.
Amendment XXIV of the United states Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax. The amendment was proposed by Congress to the states on August 27,1962 and was ratified by the states on January 23, 1964. It wasn't until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966) that all state poll taxes (for both state and federal elections) were officially declared unconstitutional, because they violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
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