Jonah Patel
The U.S. Constitution gives states police power to protect public health, safety, morals, and general welfare. This power is broad, but the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments' due process clauses limit how much a state can impact a person's life, liberty, or property. State and local governments can use this power to create laws and promote public safety, such as regulating transportation to preserve historic landmarks or banning the export of immature citrus fruits. The federal government does not hold general police power but can act when the Constitution enumerates it, such as penalizing the interstate transportation of lottery tickets.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Police powers of the Constitution | Affect the transportation of goods and people across state lines |
| Federal police powers | Regulate commerce between states, including the transportation of goods and people |
| State police powers | Affect transportation within a state, such as local laws and regulations |
| Tenth Amendment | Defines the division of police powers between the federal and state governments |
| Fourteenth Amendment | Limits state police powers by protecting individual rights to life, liberty, and property |
| Fifth Amendment | Also limits state police powers by guaranteeing due process |
| Court interpretations | Have varied over time, with some cases expanding and others limiting state police powers |
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What You'll Learn
Federal vs. state police powers
Policing in the United States is divided into three levels: federal, state, and local. Each level has distinct jurisdictions and unique roles. Federal agencies have jurisdiction across the entire country and deal with violations of federal laws, terrorism, organised crime, and other high-stakes matters. These agencies include the FBI, DEA, US Marshals, Border Patrol, Secret Service, and ATF. Federal agents handle cases that cross state lines or national borders. For example, federal law prohibits the interstate transportation of lottery tickets, stolen automobiles, and tick-infected cattle.
State agencies, on the other hand, operate within state boundaries and often support local agencies with specialised services. They include State Police or Highway Patrol, State Bureaus of Investigation, and other units that investigate state-level crimes such as serial offences and drug trafficking. State agencies also enforce state-specific laws, such as child labour regulations, which may impede interstate commerce.
Local police officers are generally responsible for patrolling neighbourhoods, maintaining public order, detective work, and community outreach. They often handle a high volume of calls and incidents and may be influenced by local politics.
Federal positions generally offer higher salaries, access to advanced resources, and opportunities for career advancement. However, they are highly competitive and demanding, requiring rigorous hiring processes and a high likelihood of relocation. State and local positions offer closer community ties and the ability to make a direct impact on neighbourhoods.
While each level of law enforcement has its own zone of jurisdiction, there is overlap and collaboration between them. For example, if a crime occurs across multiple jurisdictions or state lines, local, state, and federal agencies may all be involved in the investigation.
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The Tenth Amendment
The text of the Tenth Amendment is as follows: "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." This amendment has been interpreted as a truism or a tautology, simply stating that the federal government does not have any rights or powers that are not explicitly granted by the Constitution.
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Public health and safety
The US Constitution grants states "police power" to protect public health and safety. This power is broad and permits federal or state legislation to affect individual rights when they conflict with the promotion and maintenance of public health, safety, morals, and general welfare.
State and local governments are constitutionally obligated to ensure public safety, and they are generally tasked with protecting public health and safety and the general well-being of residents. This is known as state "police power". For example, in the 1872 Slaughterhouse Cases, the US Supreme Court upheld a New Orleans law that required slaughterhouses to move to the outskirts of the city to maintain cleanliness and health. Similarly, in Sligh v. Kirkwood (1915), the court upheld a state's police power to ban the export of immature citrus fruits to protect its reputation in the marketplace.
However, the Constitution imposes limits on this power through provisions like the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which protect a person's life, liberty, and property. Public health regulations cannot violate a person's constitutional rights. For example, in Mugler v. Kansas, the Court rolled back the assumption that every statute enacted for the promotion of public health, morals, or safety is a legitimate exercise of police power. Instead, the Court asserted that the grant of power to regulate commerce among the states is limited to its terms and does not interfere with the internal trade and business of separate states.
State courts also decide on the validity of contested legislation that enables a state to exercise its police powers. For example, state courts have dealt with matters involving private concepts of health in contention with the public's health, such as immunization requirements for school children. In these cases, the court usually finds that the public's right to health outweighs private or individual concerns.
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The Fourteenth Amendment
The Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment to mean that states have significant authority in regulating alcoholic beverages. For example, a state may declare places where liquor is manufactured or kept as common nuisances and may subject owners to property forfeiture if they allow others to use it for illegal alcohol production or transportation.
Additionally, the Fourteenth Amendment has been used to uphold state laws that prohibit combinations in restraint of trade. The Court has interpreted this amendment to mean that states can prohibit agreements to pool and fix prices, divide net earnings, and prevent competition in the purchase and sale of certain goods.
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The Fifth Amendment
> No person shall be... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
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Frequently asked questions
Police power is the permissible scope of federal or state legislation that may affect individual rights when they conflict with the promotion and maintenance of the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the public.
The Tenth Amendment states that any powers not explicitly granted to the federal government by the Constitution belong to the states or the people. This means that the federal government does not hold general police power and can only act where the Constitution specifically enumerates a power.
State courts consider the validity of contested legislation that enables a state to exercise its police powers. They balance private concepts of health with the public's health and tend to rule in favour of the public's right to health.
The Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause limits how much a state can impact a person's life, liberty, or property. It ensures that public health regulations do not violate a person's constitutional rights.
In Sligh v. Kirkwood (1915), the Supreme Court upheld a state's ban on the export of immature citrus fruits as a legitimate exercise of police power to protect the state's reputation in the marketplace.
