The document discusses various roles and responsibilities of state governments. It notes that state constitutions have certain shared components like legislatures and governors, but also vary in areas like education, health, transportation and criminal justice. It also discusses state finances through balanced budgets and revenue sources. Federalism creates both national and state powers that sometimes overlap on issues like immigration and same-sex marriage.
2. What do they do?
Constitution is non-specific
Family laws, professional
standards
Education, health,
transportation, economic
development, and criminal
justice
3. What do they do?
Constitution is non-specific
Texas Expenditures, FY 2011
Other
Family laws, professional
standards
Education, health,
transportation, economic
development, and criminal
justice
Government
Transortation
Public Safety
HHS
Education
0
10
20
30
40
50
4. Finances
40 states require balanced
budgets
Project revenue and
expenses, fluctuations
5. Finances
40 states require balanced
budgets
Project revenue and
expenses, fluctuations
Projected Revenue for
Texas, 2014-2015
Taxes
$96.9B
Federal
Fees, etc
$74.6B
$34.9B
Revenue
$208.2B
6. State constitutions
Weak in the first wave
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Post-Confederacy South constitutions
Western states concerned about machine politics
Trend since the 1960s
8. Local governments
No sovereignty, but home rule
Dillon’s Rule, 1868
“Municipal corporations owe their origins and derive their power
and rights wholly from the state legislature. It breathes into them
the breath without which they cannot exist. As it creates, so it
may destroy. If it may destroy, it may abridge and control.”
10. Where is marijuana legal?
Medical use in 20 states plus DC
Medical and recreational use in 4 states
11. November 2012
WA and CO voters
“Don’t break out the
Cheetos or the Goldfish too
quickly.”
Controlled Substances Act
Illegal, no prescriptions
12. Justice Department’s response
State regulation from “seed
to sale”
Children, inter-state
sales, gangs
Banks, security
providers, and landlords?
13. Immigration
Arizona’s 2010 laws
Created state requirements
and penalties related to
immigration law
enforcement
Existing federal law
14. Arizona v. United States
Four provisions
(1) created a state-law crime for being unlawfully present in the United States
(2) created a state-law crime for working or seeking work while not authorized
to do so
(3) required state and local officers to verify the citizenship or alien status of
anyone who was lawfully arrested or detained
(4) authorized warrantless arrests of aliens believed to be removable from the
United States.
Does federal immigration law 1) preclude Arizona's enforcement
efforts and 2) preempt AZ law?
15. Arizona v. United States
Four provisions
(1) created a state-law crime for being unlawfully present in the United States
(2) created a state-law crime for working or seeking work while not authorized
to do so
(3) required state and local officers to verify the citizenship or alien status of
anyone who was lawfully arrested or detained
(4) authorized warrantless arrests of aliens believed to be removable from the
United States.
Does federal immigration law 1) preclude Arizona's enforcement
efforts and 2) preempt AZ law? Yes and no.
16. Same sex marriage
Thirteen states and DC permit same sex marriage
Federal benefits related to marriage
Defense of Marriage Act, 1996
17. United States v. Windsor, 2013
Windsor and Spyer married
in Canada, 2007
$383,000 tax, no marital
exemption
18. Is DOMA, which defines the term marriage as a “legal
union between a man and a woman”, unconstitutional?
19. Is DOMA, which defines the term marriage as a “legal
union between a man and a woman”, unconstitutional?
Partly. Given state marriage, it imposes a
“disadvantage, a separate status, and so a stigma” on
same-sex couples in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s
guarantee of equal protection.
Notes de l'éditeur
Money in billionshttp://www.window.state.tx.us/taxbud/expend_hist.html#2011