6.1 Federal vs. State Powers & Concurrent Powers
Key Takeaways
- Enumerated (delegated) powers belong only to the federal government and are listed mainly in Article I, Section 8 — coining money, declaring war, regulating interstate/foreign commerce, and making treaties.
- Reserved powers belong only to state governments under the Tenth Amendment — education, driver's/marriage licenses, elections administration, and general police power.
- Concurrent powers are held by both levels at once — taxation, borrowing money, establishing courts, chartering banks, and building roads are the classic GED examples.
- The Necessary and Proper ("Elastic") Clause, Article I Section 8 Clause 18, is the textual source of implied federal powers and was upheld in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819).
- The Supremacy Clause (Article VI) makes valid federal law override conflicting state law — but concurrent powers coexisting is not a conflict.
Why Federalism Shows Up Constantly on the GED
Civics and Government is 50% of the GED Social Studies Test — the single largest content area — and inside that 50%, the question of who has the power to do what is one of the most frequently tested ideas. The GED Testing Service's official blueprint lists this directly as two related content items: CG.c.3 ("major powers and responsibilities of the federal and state governments") and CG.c.4 ("shared, or concurrent, powers"). In plain terms: the test wants to know whether you can look at an action — printing money, issuing a driver's license, collecting a sales tax — and correctly sort it into federal-only, state-only, or both.
This matters because GED items rarely just ask "what is federalism?" They present a scenario ("A state legislature passes a law requiring all voters to show photo ID") or a list of four actions and ask which one is a power reserved to the states, or which is exercised by both levels. If you don't have the three-way sort memorized cold, you will burn time reasoning it out from scratch on every single item.
Core Terms You Must Know
Federalism is the constitutional system that divides governing power between one national (federal) government and multiple state governments, each sovereign within its own sphere. The Constitution creates this division mainly through Article I, Section 8, and the Tenth Amendment.
- Enumerated powers (also called delegated or expressed powers) are powers written out explicitly in the Constitution and given only to the federal government. Article I, Section 8 lists them: coining money, declaring war, raising and maintaining armed forces, regulating interstate and foreign commerce, establishing post offices, and negotiating treaties (a power of the President with Senate consent, Article II).
- Implied powers are not spelled out but are reasonably inferred from the Necessary and Proper Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 18), nicknamed the "Elastic Clause" because it stretches federal authority to cover actions needed to carry out the enumerated powers. The classic example: the Constitution never mentions a national bank, but Congress chartered one anyway, reasoning it was "necessary and proper" to manage federal finances. In McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the Supreme Court upheld this reasoning and also ruled that a state cannot tax a legitimate federal institution — establishing that valid federal law is supreme over conflicting state law.
- Reserved powers belong to the states (or the people) under the Tenth Amendment, which states that any power not delegated to the federal government and not prohibited to the states is reserved to the states. Reserved powers include regulating education, issuing marriage licenses and driver's licenses, conducting elections, establishing local governments, and exercising general "police powers" (public health, safety, and morals) within the state.
- Concurrent powers are exercised by both the federal government and state governments at the same time, on the same population, without conflict. This is the category test-takers most often miss because it feels counterintuitive — surely a power belongs to only one level? It does not.
- The Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2) declares the Constitution, federal laws made under it, and treaties to be "the supreme Law of the Land," meaning that when a state law directly conflicts with a valid federal law, the federal law controls.
The Three-Way Sort (Memorize This Table)
| Category | Held by | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Federal-only (enumerated/implied) | National government exclusively | Declare war, coin/print money, regulate interstate & foreign commerce, run the postal service, negotiate treaties, raise a military, grant patents/copyrights |
| State-only (reserved) | State governments exclusively | Regulate public education, issue driver's licenses and marriage licenses, conduct state/local elections, establish local governments, regulate intrastate business |
| Concurrent (shared) | Both levels simultaneously | Levy taxes, borrow money, establish court systems, charter banks, build roads, spend money for the general welfare, enforce laws |
Notice the pattern: things that need one uniform national policy (currency, foreign relations, interstate trade) are federal-only. Things that vary sensibly by community (school policy, licensing, local law enforcement) are reserved to states. Things every functioning government needs regardless of level (taxation, courts, roads) are concurrent.
Exam Scenario Walkthrough
Imagine a GED item states: "Which of the following is an example of a power exercised by both the federal government and state governments?" with options: (A) declaring war, (B) issuing currency, (C) levying taxes, (D) regulating interstate commerce. A test-taker who has only memorized "federalism = states have power too" without the three-way sort might get stuck between A and C. Applying the table above: declaring war and issuing currency are both federal-only (national uniformity is required — you cannot have 50 different currencies). Levying taxes, however, happens at every level: federal income tax, state income/sales tax, and local property tax all coexist. The answer is (C).
A second common format presents a stimulus paragraph — for example, a short passage about a state passing an environmental regulation that is more restrictive than the federal standard — and asks you to identify the constitutional principle at play (concurrent powers, since environmental regulation is generally permitted at both levels as long as the state rule does not contradict a valid federal rule).
Common Traps
- Confusing "shared" with "conflicting." Concurrent powers coexist; they are not a contest. The Supremacy Clause only resolves genuine conflicts, not the mere fact that both levels regulate a topic.
- Assuming police power is federal. General law-enforcement and criminal-law authority over ordinary crimes (assault, theft, most traffic violations) is a reserved state power; federal law enforcement (FBI, DEA) applies to specific federal crimes (interstate fraud, federal drug trafficking, terrorism).
- Forgetting that "necessary and proper" is a real constitutional clause, not vague test language — it is Article I, Section 8, Clause 18, and it is the textual source of Congress's implied powers.
A state government issues driver's licenses, and the federal government regulates the national currency. These two actions are examples of which two categories of power, respectively?
Congress creates a federal loan program by relying on the Necessary and Proper Clause, even though "issuing student loans" is not explicitly listed in Article I, Section 8. This is the best example of Congress exercising a(n):
Which constitutional provision establishes that a valid federal law overrides a directly conflicting state law?