Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Political Science powers of the constitution powers of the constitution The national and state governments derive their respective powers from the Constitution in several ways. Some powers are explicitly stated while others are not. Understanding the various types of powers can be difficult and this essay is an attempt to clarify them. The Tenth Amendment of the Constitution states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” From this amendment we first learn of delegated and reserved powers. Delegated powers are those powers of the national government that are expressed or implied in the Constitution. Reserved powers, therefore, are those powers which remain. Reserved powers are a function of state law. Delegated powers include expressed and implied powers. Expressed powers are those that are explicitly granted. Implied powers finds its basis in the necessary and proper clause of the Constitution. This clause allows Congress to make any and “all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution express powers.” The necessary and proper clause is found in Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution. It states, “The Congress shall have power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any other department or officer thereof.” The necessary and proper clause is tied closely to the supremacy clause of the Constitution. “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, any thing in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.” The principles of necessary and proper and the supremacy clause can be seen in the landmark case McCulloch v. Maryland. The Supreme Court ruled that the state of Maryland could not tax the United States national bank because the necessary and proper clause “gave Congress a discretionary choice of means for implementing the granted powers.” This also was the first case to establish the national government as supreme by not allowing the state of Maryland to regulate a national bank through taxation. “Resulting powers are derived by implication from the mass of delegated powers or from a group of them. Such powers include the taking of property by eminent domain for a purpose not specified in the Constitution, the power to carry into effect treaties entered into by the United States, the power to maintain national supremacy of the national government within its sphere of authority, and the power to control relations with Indians.” There are powers that are shared between the national and state governments and there are those that are only practiced by the central government. These powers are known as concurrent (shared) and exclusive. Powers are exclusive when: “1. Where the right to exercise the power is made exclusive by express provision of the Constitution. Article 1 Section 8, Clause 17 gives Congress exclusive power over the District of Columbia and over property purchased from a state with consent of the legislature. 2. Where one section of the Constitution grants an express power to Congress and another section prohibits the states from exercising a similar power. Article 1 Section 8 gives Congress the power to coin money and Article 1 Section 10 prohibits the states from exercising such a power. 3. Where the power granted to Congress, though not in terms exclusive, is such that the exercise of a similar power by the states would be utterly incompatible with national power. In Cooley v. Board of Wardens the court admitted the existence of concurrent powers to control interstate commerce but limited state power to matters of local concern.” In summary, the powers granted by the Constitution include delegated, reserved, express, implied, resulting, exclusive, and concurrent powers. They all find their basis in the Constitution of the United States and its Amendments. Bibliography: Word Count: 685
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