• The fundamental task of any constitution is to prescribe how government should be “constituted.” It must define the authority of each branch of government and delineate the boundaries that separate the different branches.

• In a federal state, like the United States, the additional burden of the constitution is to provide for sets of complicated relationships:

  • The relationship of the federal to the state governments

  • The relationships among the states.

Legislative conflicts between federal and state governments

• Legislative conflicts are resolved by appealing to the constitutionally defined powers of Congress.

  • If Congress has authority to legislate in a particular area, then its authority prevails over the wishes of the states to the contrary.

  • This is a consequence of the supremacy clause in the Constitution, Art. VI, Clause 2, establishing that the Constitution, federal statutes, and treaties of the United States constitute the “supreme law of the land.”

Legislative conflicts among the states

• The Constitution does not define the authority of state legislatures relative to each other. Yet it is obvious in the structure of federalism that no state legislature can legislate for the entire country.

  • For example, could the California legislature pass a criminal statute that applied to Californians wherever they went—within the United States or outside? After all, Germany recognizes this “active nationality” principle, which means that German law follows German nationals wherever they go.

• The question has not really come up among the states, largely because state legislatures follow the common law principle of territorial jurisdiction. Even without constitutional guidance, they limit their claims of legislative authority to events that occur on their territory.

Judicial relations among the states

• From the time of its founding, the United States has been a self-consciously mobile society, with people and goods moving freely among the states.

  • The consequence is a large number of situations in which the citizens of one state have legal disputes with the citizens of other states.

    • To ensure a neutral forum, the Constitution recognizes federal “diversity” jurisdiction in these cases.

• Article IV, Section 1, of the Constitution: Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State.

• The implication of this “full faith and credit” clause is that judgments secure in one state are automatically enforceable in all states.