Foundation of the American Legal System Essay example

The American Constitution provides for a division of government powers between the federal and state governments, as well as provides solutions in an event of conflict between these two governments. The Supremacy Clause is derived through Constitutional Law and determines that the Constitution, Federal statutes, and United States treaties contain the “supreme law of the land”, creating the framework for the highest areas of law within the American legal system. Article VI, Section 2 of the United States Constitution contains The Supremacy Clause.

11 What does the supremacy clause provide? What would be the consequences if the supremacy clause did not exist?

Each state has their own specific unique laws established individually for their state. In conjunction with those laws that exist over the people in their specific state there are also federal laws that govern the states as well as the people who live in them. These laws that govern the people are known as state laws and federal laws. The U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land in the United States. “It creates a federal system of government in which power is shared between the federal government and the state governments. Due to federalism, both the federal government and each of the state governments have their own court systems (Comparing

In the Unites States of America Federalism is the basic structure of the American government; it is the distribution and balance of powers between the National government and the States government. In order to obtain a compromise between those who wanted stronger state government and those who preferred a stronger national government the founding fathers arranged and settled for a federal system rather than the alternatives of a unitary or confederal system. While both National and State governments each have specific powers and authority, they also share certain powers and must be able to cooperate effectively with each other.

In the decision regarding Gibbons v. Ogden, Marshall ruled that a state can't grant a monopoly when it is related to interstate commerce. This gave supremacy to the national government in issues regarding interstate commerce. Through his interpretation of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, John Marshall successfully increased the power of the national government.

The U.S. Constitution created a strong government structure for the United States known as federalism. Both the federal and state governments must have their own court systems to apply and interpret their own specific laws. Both federal and state constitutions attempt to do this by specifically spelling out the jurisdiction of their own court systems. For example, U.S Constitution gives Congress the power to make uniform laws concerning bankruptcies, a state court would lack jurisdiction in this matter. Since the Constitution does not give the federal government authority in most matters concerning the regulation of the family, a federal court would lack jurisdiction in a divorce case. This is the main reason why there are two separate court systems in America. The federal court system deals with issues of law relating to those powers implicitly granted to them by the U.S. Constitution. The state court systems deal with issues of laws relating to those matters that the U.S. Constitution did not give to the federal government or deny to the states.

The government is divided into three branches. Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. James Madison states in his Federalist papers, “Liberty requires that the great departments of powers should be separate and distinct.” Legislative writes the laws for and consists of the House of Representatives and Senate. Executive branch passes the laws the legislative branch makes and the President is the head of this branch. Judicial branch decides if laws are constitutional or not and consists of the Supreme Court. This keeps one branch from getting too much power.

“Federalism, central to the constitutional design, adopts the principle that both the National and State Governments have elements of sovereignty the other is bound to respect.” Arizona v. United States, 132 S. Ct. 2492, 2500 (2012). The Supremacy Clause provides a clear rule that federal law “shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.” Art. VI, cl. 2. Under this standard, Congress has the power to preempt state law. Arizona, 132 S. Ct. at 2495; Crosby v. National Foreign Trade Council, 530 U.S. 363, 372 (2000); Gibbons v. Ogden, 9 Wheat. 1, 210–211 (1824). However, it is assumed that historic State police powers are not superseded “unless that was the clear and manifest purpose of Congress.” Arizona, 132 S. Ct. at 2501; Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U.S. 218, 230 (1947).

he Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution (Article VI, Clause 2) establishes that the Constitution, Federal Laws constitute the supreme law of the land. All state courts are bound by the supreme law. If the conflict between federal and state laws, the federal law overrules. The states must stay within the boundaries of the Constitution and Federal Laws. This makes the Supremacy Clause the cornerstone of the U.S.A. You review the local laws in your state. http://statelaws.findlaw.com/

Essentially, the Supremacy Clause states that the laws promulgated by the U.S. government take priority over any laws that the individual states have enacted. The forefathers of the United States understood that while some issues should be under the states’ discretion, others have more of a national concern. Based on the Supremacy Clause, states are prohibited from passing laws that are inconsistent with federal law. In turn state constitutions have also inserted Supremacy Clauses in their own constitutions that prohibit the municipalities from enacting laws that are inconsistent with state laws. However obvious and simple this concept sounds, the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) has seen over twelve cases in the last five years concerning federal preemption and the balance between state and federal power and

The United States court system is the institution were all the legal disputes in the american society are carryed out and resolved. However, one single court is not enough to resolve every single dispute in society and that is why the court system is made up of two different courts, the federal courts and the state courts. Moreover, the federal and state courts are made up of several divisions made to handle legal disputes differently depending on its seriousness. For example, the state court is made up of trial courts of limited jurisdiction and probate courts were cases and disputes originate and then move up to trial courts of general jurisdiction, intermediate apellate courts, and courts of last resort respectively depending on the case.In contrast, the federal court consists of district courts, territorial coutrs, tax court, court of international trade, claims court, court of veterans appeals, an courts of military review which then move on to courts of appeals respectively and may ultimately end up in the United States supreme court. In addition, cases from state court may also appeal into the federal court system but not the other way around.

State and Federal Courts share similarities and differences among prosecution purposes and resolving cases based on certain criteria. Depending on the nexus and magnitude of the case, depends on which level of prosecution the case will be heard. According to Criminal Law and Procedure, federalism is defined as two forms of sovereign government in the United States, constructed of various levels of government such as city, county, state, and federal (Hall, 2015). Furthermore, we can assume the amount of power strengthens from city government to federal government. Consequently, much emphasis is shown to the Tenth Amendment regarding power as it states, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or the people", (Hall, 2015, p. 4). Thus, dual federalism has resulted in that state and federal governments are coequal based on rulings by the Supreme Court (Hall, 2015).

When the United States Constitution was established, the founding fathers devised the core of the court system that is present in today’s society. The state and federal government each have a version of a Supreme Court which is typically led by a Chief Justice. The states level Supreme Court Justice governs the issues that pertains to the citizens within the respective state. These individuals will also take part in hearings or proceedings that impact of law of the state and hear constitutional cases with regards to the state. On the federal side, a Supreme Court Chief Justice will operates more on a national

The Supremacy Clause is the clause that establishes the federal government’s authority over state governments. The Supremacy Clause is found in the U.S. Constitution in Clause Two of Article Six. This Clause upholds the United States Constitution, federal statutes, and treaties as "the supreme law of the land." Federal law’s supremacy applies only if Congress is acting in fulfilment of its constitutionally authorized powers. The Clause directly states, “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.” The Supremacy Clause was born from the Federalist Papers which are writings of Federalist James Madison.

In the United States, the legal system is an interconnected system of regulatory, governmental and judicial authorities that operate under the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States, various State and Local Constitutions and laws, and agreed upon standards. The overall system operates at the federal, state and local level through Federal Courts, State Courts, and Governmental Regulatory Agencies (Neubauer and Fradella, 2010). All of this is based on the Common Law Adversarial System of Jurisprudence, dating back to the Middle Ages.