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Why Is The Constitution Weak

Decent Essays

“We as a country are supposed to be weak and fragmented as federal govt,” are what the Founding Fathers intended. However, later on there became an environmental shift. How did we become the most powerful entity that has existed in the world when we were supposed to be so weak? The provision that show why the government is little and weak when it should be strong is located in Article I Section 8. This section states powers that are reserved not to the federal government, but to the states and the people. The States must comply with laws passed by Congress only if the laws don’t violate Constitution. If the laws are unconstitutional, the States can freely pay no attention to them. This is quoted in section 8 clause 17: “To exercise exclusive …show more content…

These portions of sovereignty and powers transferred are listed out in the Constitution and mainly have to do with the defense of the country, foreign relations, and relations between the individual States. All other powers remain with the States. They retained all powers necessary to regulate the lives of the citizens living in the States and the land inside the borders of the States. This is the idea of federalism and it’s one of the most fundamental concepts embedded in the Constitution. The Constitution limits the Federal Government. Its powers are enumerated If a power is not given in the Constitution, the power is held within the States/individuals. If the States had surrendered all of their sovereignty to the federal government, then all of the power would be concentrated with the federal government. Our Founding Fathers didn’t believe in an overly powerful central government. They included in the Constitution many protections to prevent that from happening. During the ratification of the Constitution it became clear that many believed these protections were not strong enough so the Tenth Amendment was added. The writers of the Constitution never intended the Supreme Court be the final arbitrator of what is Constitutional and not. The Supreme Court plays an important role in this process, however, its responsibilities are split and shared with two other branches of the federal government, the States, and the American

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