state sovereignty

(noun)

In American political discourse, the rights held by individual states as opposed to those held by the federal government as determined by the U.S. Constitution.

Related Terms

Examples of state sovereignty in the following topics:

  • The Sovereign States

    • The sovereignty of the states as opposed to the power of the federal government has been a longstanding issue in American politics.
    • Thus, no state may interfere with the federal government's operations as though its sovereignty were superior to that of the federal government; for example, states may not interfere with the federal government's near absolute discretion to sell its own real property even when that real property is located in one or another state.
    • Sometimes, the Supreme Court has even analogized the states to being foreign countries in relation to each other as a means to explain the American system of state sovereignty.
    • However, each state's sovereignty is limited by the U.S.
    • Compare the sovereignty of the states to the power of the federal government

  • National Identity

    • Similarly, the federal government, as an attribute of sovereignty, has the power to enforce those powers that are granted to it.
    • Sometimes, the Supreme Court has even compared the states to being foreign countries in relation to each other to explain the American system of state sovereignty.
    • Each state's sovereignty is limited by the U.S.
    • The Constitution is the supreme law of both the United States as a nation and each state individually.
    • As a result, although the federal government is recognized as sovereign and has supreme power over those matters within its control, the American constitutional system also recognizes the concept of "state sovereignty".

  • "We the People"

    • The phrase can be seen as affirming that the national government the Constitution created derives its sovereignty from the people.
    • Similarly, the federal government, as an attribute of sovereignty, has the power to enforce those powers granted to it.
    • Thus, no state may interfere with the federal government's operations as though its sovereignty were superior to that of the federal government.
    • Sometimes, as a means to explain the US system of state sovereignty, the Supreme Court has even analogized the states as being foreign countries in relation to each other.
    • However, each state's sovereignty is limited by the US Constitution, which is the supreme law of both the United States as a nation and each state.

  • The Compromise of 1850

    • The Compromise of 1850 left the question of slave versus free states to popular sovereignty.
    • Southern politicians, alarmed that they would lose their majority, pushed for Congress to pass legislation that would allow California to be admitted as a slave state, or to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, effectively splitting the state in half into one free state and one slave state.
    • The territories of New Mexico and Utah would be organized on the basis of popular sovereignty.
    • By allowing popular sovereignty to determine slave or free states, the Senate basically guaranteed future discord over the sectional balance of power in the coming years.
    • In the Compromise of 1850, popular sovereignty was not defined as a guiding principle on the slave issue going forward.

  • "The People"

    • The United States is a union of states.
    • It has also been construed to mean something like "all under the sovereign jurisdiction and authority of the United States. " The phrase has been construed as affirming that the national government created by the Constitution derives its sovereignty from the people, as well as confirming that the government under the Constitution was intended to govern and protect "the people" directly as one society instead of governing only the states as political units.
    • The Court has also understood this language to mean that the sovereignty of the government under the U.S.
    • Thomas Hobbes was a theorist of "sovereignty" in early modern political thought.
    • Explain from whom or from where the national government derives its sovereignty under the Constitution

  • Bleeding Kansas

    • At the heart of the conflict was the question of whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free state or slave state.
    • The United States had long struggled to balance the interests of slaveholders and abolitionists.
    • The principle of popular sovereignty stated that inhabitants of each territory or state should decide whether it would be a free or slave state.
    • The Compromise of 1850, however, had mandated that popular sovereignty would determine any new territory's slave or free status.
    • As Kansas was neighbors with slave-state Missouri and free-state Iowa, many pro- and anti-slavery settlers began to pour into the territory with the intent of voting for or against slavery as a state-sanctioned institution.

  • American Indian Rights

    • Before the Voting Rights Act, many states had found ways to prevent American Indians from voting, such as residency or literacy requirements.
    • The AIM agenda focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty.
    • From its beginnings in Minnesota, AIM soon attracted members from across the United States.
    • The Longest Walk in 1978 was an AIM-led spiritual walk across the country to support tribal sovereignty and bring attention to 11 pieces of anti-Indian legislation.
    • This 3,200-mile walk's purpose was to educate people about the U.S. government's continuing threat to tribal sovereignty; it rallied thousands representing many American Indian Nations throughout the United States and Canada.

  • The Emergence of Abraham Lincoln

    • At the time, U.S. senators were elected by state legislatures; therefore, Lincoln and Douglas were campaigning for their respective parties to win control of the Illinois legislature.
    • As the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Douglas' aim in the debates was to defend his position that popular sovereignty was the best method to legislate on the expansion of slavery, regardless of the Dred Scott decision.
    • Lincoln argued that legislating slavery based on popular sovereignty would nationalize and perpetuate slavery in both the territories and the northern states.
    • Lincoln asserted that United States policy had always been to legislate against slavery, citing the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which banned slavery from a large part of the modern-day Midwest.
    • Therefore, popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott decision were departures from policies of the past.

  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act

    • The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 mandated that popular sovereignty would determine the slave or free status in the region.
    • Douglas (IL), repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and mandated that popular sovereignty would determine any new territory's slave or free status.
    • Douglas and other representatives hoped that by tagging on the popular sovereignty mandate, they could avoid confronting the slave issue in the organization of the Kansas-Nebraska territory.
    • Kansas territory was neighbors with slave state Missouri and free state Iowa.
    • In 1861, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state in the midst of the Civil War.

  • The Lecompton Constitution

    • The Lecompton Constitution, drafted by pro-slavery factions, was a state constitution proposed for the state of Kansas that rivaled that proposed by the Free Soiler faction.
    • The Lecompton Constitution was the second of four proposed constitutions for the state of Kansas.
    • Free-state supporters, who comprised a large majority of actual settlers, boycotted the vote.
    • The resulting Lecompton Constitution secured the continuation of slavery in the proposed state and protected the rights of slaveholders.
    • In 1858, in an effort to win Northern support for the popular sovereignty argument, Douglas entered into a series of debates with Abraham Lincoln who was challenging him for the Illinois congressional seat.