The creation of the United States of America and its government gave rise to two relatively new and important concepts: federalism and popular sovereignty. These principles are some of the oldest in our government’s history and continue to play a large role in the success of this country. Several conflicts have arisen in the past hundred years that have jeopardized these important principles, but each one has contributed to the strength of our nation through helping the government learn from it’s mistakes. Each time one of these concepts comes into question our nation is made stronger and smarter.

Popular sovereignty is one of the six basic principles our government was founded on. It is the term that we use to describe a system in which the people are the source of all political power. Thus, government can govern only with the consent of the governed. The principle of popular sovereignty is woven throughout the Constitution as well as the Declaration of Independence. Federalism describes a system of government in which power is divided between a national or central government and several smaller territories or states. In other words, national and state governme

One major characteristic of federalism is that the Supreme Court is the umpire in the federal system. With help from the supremacy clause in the Constitution, all decisions made by the Federal Supreme Court are to be considered final and irrefutable. Also under the ladder of laws created by the supremacy clause, Federal court decisions exist on a higher level than State and district court decisions, etc. One such case held September 23, 2003 involving a proposed recall vote in California could be easily linked to the principles of federalism and popular sovereignty. “11 More Judges Hear Arguments on Recall Election” from The Denver Post thoroughly describes this event. Eleven Federal appeals judges heard arguments from opposing lawyers over whether California must delay their 7th district recall election because some counties had old machines and may possibly be defective or inaccurate. This is an excellent example of Federalism at work. The situation, which started out as the State’s problem, had escalated to the federal level. Some people apparently thought that their constitutional rights to vote and be treated equally were being violated, so the federal government had to step in.

Another article from the Internet on September 2, 2003, “Appeals Court Tosses out 111 Death Sentences”, discusses a ninth circuit federal court’s decision based on a recent Supreme Court ruling. A federal court overturned 111 death sentences imposed by judges from Arizona, Idaho, and Montana. The original death sentences were made by three-judge panels in all three states. Decisions by such panels were recently made unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because they infringe a person’s right to be convicted by a jury of their peers. This is another great example of federalism alive and well today. A federal court overturned a State court’s r

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