USA federal structure
Federalism refers to a political system aimed at ensuring the integrity of the constituting states and other organizations. This single political system forms the central government at the helm of power, and the constituting states form the regional governments. Each of these regional governments is subject to the central government. However, each of these constituting states of the regional government acts independently to its people’s interests.
In the United States of America federation, federalism seeks to ensure equal distribution of power to the regional governments and retain the sovereignty of the central government. The central government is the only organ mandated to print the country’s currency. However, the regional governments act on behalf of the central government on taxation and voting regulations. Besides, the USA federal structure accommodates both the horizontal and vertical division of powers. Vertically, there is a hierarchical structure of power that creates diverse access points for the citizens. In contrast, horizontally, each of the country’s federal structures is divided into the legislative, judiciary, and government arms.
The tribal governments are responsible for the welfare of the people aligned to a particular tribal line. These tribal governments ensure that there is health provision in their area of jurisdiction, the people’s safety, and the community is guaranteed. The general welfare of the community is upheld. Besides, the tribal governments, just like the state governments, are the interlinks between the government and the tribesmen. Therefore, there is an intergovernmental relationship between the tribal and the state governments to ensure that the people’s grievances are aired directly to the necessary authorities.
State governments, however, incorporate the needs of all people regardless of their tribal alignment. The state governments are responsible for the levying of the state-level income taxes. However, this tax is optional, seeing that it has been applied in other states while it is foregone in others. Besides, the state governments operate under their rules developed for their area of jurisdiction. This brings in a clear distinction between different state laws that exist for different states, thus, the reason as to why some attorneys are barred from practicing law in some states while in others they are not. Moreover, in collaboration with the tribal governments, the state governments are responsible for the provision of quality healthcare services for their states. The federal government, on the other hand, exercises its jurisdiction through municipalities. They act on behalf of the state governments by delegating duties such as charging parking fees and zoning issues to the municipalities. The federal government ensures the decentralization of power from the central government to the local level.
The federal courts run on a type of jurisdiction referred to as the original jurisdiction. This allows the federal courts to only listen to cases that have been authorized to them by the constitution or other federal statutes. Cases that arise from the federal laws, constitution, and treaties begin their hearings in the federal district court. The federal courts’ sample cases include the constitutional violation cases, fraudulent activities entailing federal land and premises, and bankruptcy cases.
State courts, on the other hand, enjoy both the original and appellate jurisdictions. The constitution mandates the original jurisdiction, and the state courts get to hear such cases first; however, the appellate jurisdiction allows the state courts to review verdicts made by a lower court. Most of the cases ruled by the state courts include those that entail laws that have been passed by the state legislature, family law cases such as breaching of contracts, and criminal cases. Tribal courts, on the other hand, are designed I such a way that they have criminal jurisdiction. However, what differentiates this jurisdiction over the other types is that the tribal courts have no jurisdiction over other tries except those enclosed by the tribal government.