Chapter 3 - Texas in the Federal System

Question 1

Federalism

Answer 1

A system of government in which power is divided between a central government and regional governments

Question 2

Sovereign

Answer 2

Possessing supreme political authority within a geographic area

Question 3

Reconstruction

Answer 3

The period after the Civil War when much of the South was under military occupation

Question 4

Dual federalism

Answer 4

The system of government that prevailed in the United States from 1789 to 1937, in which most fundamental governmental powers were strictly separated between the federal and state governments

Question 5

Layer-cake federalism

Answer 5

A way of describing the system of dual federalism in which there is a division of responsibilities between the state and the national governments

Question 6

Marble-cake federalism

Answer 6

A way of describing federalism where the boundaries between the national government and state government have become blurred

Question 7

Cooperative federalism

Answer 7

A type of federalism existing since the New Deal era in which grants-inaid have been used to encourage states and localities (without commanding them) to pursue nationally defined goals; also known as intergovernmental cooperation

Question 8

Categorical grants

Answer 8

Congressionally appropriated grants to states and localities on the condition that expenditures be limited to a problem or group specified by law

Question 9

New Federalism

Answer 9

The attempts by Presidents Nixon and Reagan to return power to the states through block grants

Question 10

Block grants

Answer 10

Federal grants that allow states considerable discretion on how funds are spent

Question 11

Coercive federalism

Answer 11

Federal policies that force states to change their policies to achieve national goals

Question 12

Unfunded mandates

Answer 12

Federal requirements that states or local governments pay the costs of federal policies

Question 13

Preemption

Answer 13

Where the national government imposes its priorities and prevents the state from acting in a particular field

Question 14

Sanford dictum

Answer 14

Held in Gitlow v. New York that the First Amendment right of free speech was a fundamental right that applied to the states

Question 15

Selective incorporation

Answer 15

Rights in the Bill of Rights that the Court believes are fundamental and are held to apply to the states as well as the national government because they are part of the “liberty” protected from state action in the Fourteenth Amendment

Question 16

“separate but equal”

Answer 16

An interpretation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment that held that states could segregate races as long as equal facilities were provided; it was overturned in 1954

Question 17

Strict scrutiny

Answer 17

The most rigorous equal protection standard. It requires that the government show a compelling state interest in order to successfully defend a law that makes certain classifications such as racial classifications. Additionally, that classification must be one that is narrowly tailored by the least drastic means possible to achieve the government’s objective

Question 18

Rational basis test

Answer 18

Presumes that the legal classification made by the government is constitutional; all the government must show is some rational justification for the law

Question 19

Intermediate standard of review

Answer 19

Primarily used for classifications in the law based on sex; for the law to be constitutional the government must show important governmental objectives and the law must be substantially related to achievement of those objectives

Question 20

Independent state grounds

Answer 20

Allow states, usually under the state constitution, to expand rights beyond those provided by the U.S. Constitution