The relation between the federal government and the government of Texas
The national government of U.S has the overall power over all of its states Texas being one of them. Similarly, Texas government has the overall power over all of its cities. The two governing bodies have many similarities only that one is under the other. The setup of the two governments is based on the structure of their constitutions whereby the laws are analogous. The way Texas and Texas cities relate is analogous to the relationship between the federal government and the state of Texas in the following ways (Zimmerman, 1995).
The first section of the constitution defines the freedom and sovereignty of the state. Texas being an independent state, it is free to maintain its welfare and resources but it is subjected only to the constitution of the federal government. In the reconstruction of the constitution in 1861 and later 1869 on the bill of rights the new section 1 was amended and the supremacy of the federal government was stressed. The principle of supremacy of the federal government was placed in section 2 of Article IV of the U.S constitution. This was to imply that any laws on the bill of rights of any state were not supposed to contradict the federal government’s laws of the Supreme Court of the United States (Ruud, 1958).
Both constitutions have embraced the republican system of governance whereby the power of the state lies in the hands of the citizens. The judge Dillon of the Texas Supreme Court comes to disagree with the criminal appeals in the case between Brown and the City of Galveston quoting the constitution in section 2 that says that all power of the governments is in the hand of the people and all the free governments are based or founded by the people’s authority (Zimmerman, 1995). This is done through free and fair voting whereby the majority wins the political stand. This gives the citizens sovereignty meaning that all its powers are exercised for the benefit of the citizens. From the extrajudicial perspective, section 2 was particularly cited for Texas which had attempted to revise the constitution through the constitutional convention. In Article IV section 4 of the U.S constitution, it guarantees a republican form of government to all its states and so Texas is not exceptional. This had to be so because even the federal government is also republican.
In the education sector, the Supreme Court sat in their efforts to find a single vote that would pass the denial of funding the rich schools. This was meant to drive away putting favors of the financial body to the wealthy schools. This is further explained in section 1 of Article VII. Since it is difficult to make a prediction of the development under the Equal Protection Clause, it was concluded that this clause would be used under certain instances under the explanation of section 19 of the constitution (Zimmerman, 1995). Following the decision of the supreme court of the U.S, Texas was made to follow it in invalidating laws but it would still it would not invalidate them under the Fifth Amendment’s (Ashcroft, and Barbara, 1983).
The Texas constitution has its structure which is similar to that of the federal government. Article 1 section 1 of the constitution starts by defining the sovereignty of the state of Texas subject only to the constitution of U.S. This implies that the same way that the United States is independent, the state of Texas is independent also. This shows how the two governments correlate (Ruud, 1958).
The constitution of Texas has highlighted the rights and the duties of the citizen just like the way the constitution of the federal government highlights the rights of states and their responsibility in the federal government. The constitution has a long column that highlights the bill of rights and the freedoms of the citizens. Article 2 clearly puts how the separation of powers should be distributed within the government. This would help in preventing the government’s intrusion in facets that should be out of boundary for the government. In a similar way, the federal government has the separation of powers throughout the states. Both constitutions divide the powers into the high and the low levels. For the federal government, the states including Texas are subordinate to it just as the counties of Texas are subordinate to it (Ruud, 1958).
The mode of making amendments to the constitution has been written clearly on Article 17 in the constitution. This is carried out through the legislature and also dependent on the voters’ approval. In the convention of 1974 the amendments of this article was done but the passing of the amendments were dependent on the voting of the citizens (Ashcroft, and Barbara, 1983).
Conclusion
From the comparative analysis throughout the paper, the relationship between the state of Texas and Texas cities is analogous to that of the Federal Government and the State of Texas. Just to summarize the similarities of the two relationships, cities are subordinate to the state of Texas just as Texas is subordinate to the federal government. The division or the separation of power for the federal government is distributed to the states while the separation of powers of the state of Texas is distributed to the cities.
The two governments have used the republican form of leadership. This gives the citizens of Texas State to make the final decision in form of voting. In a similar way, the states have the final say on the decisions that the federal government shall make. Since the citizens have all the powers over the state, they also have the power over the federal government and so the supremacy of the people is the most important in the United States of America. Both constitutions have laid out the privileges of the citizens and their duties. In both constitutions, a list of bill of rights has been outlined. It has also been seen that the federal government is more supreme than that of Texas because Texas’ decisions have to be approved by the federal government.
Work Cited
Ashcroft, Robert R., and Barbara Kyle Balfour. (1983)"Home Rule Cities and Municipal Annexation in Texas: Recent Trends and Future Prospects.". Mary's LJ 15: 519.
The Constitution of 1787, especially Article IV.
Ruud, Millard H. (1958) "Legislative Jurisdiction of Texas Home Rule Cities." Tex. L. Rev. 37: 682.
Texas Constitution, Article XI.
Formun Üstü
Zimmerman, J. F. (1995). State-local relations: A partnership approach. Westport, Conn: Praeger.
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