Notes

States can make laws about anything that is not prohibited by the Constitution or by national law.

They regulate and promote business, preserve natural resources, make and enforce criminal laws, protect individual rights, and provide for public health, education, and welfare.

they have an interest in having local businesses succeed to benefit the state economy and provide employment for state residents. States also regulate businesses to protect consumers. States make and enforce laws to address unfair advertising, interest rates on credit cards, landlord-tenant relations, and more. States also regulate the safety and sanitary conditions for workers. States might provide for a minimum wage that businesses must pay to employees, and will provide payments to people who are injured on the job or to people who lose their jobs.

Education, health, and welfare account for the largest portion of state spending.

States try to preserve their natural resources by regulating air and water pollution. Environmental regulation impacts the health of residents and the economy of the state.

Under federalism and the Constitution, states must honor other states’ laws and court orders, even if their own laws are different.

This means that one state cannot discriminate unreasonably against citizens of another state—they must give the same fundamental rights to people from other states that they give their own citizens.

The principal way states settle disagreements is by negotiating interstate compacts, which are written agreements between two or more states. Congress must approve interstate compacts. This requirement prevents states from threatening the Union by making alliances among themselves. Once a compact has been signed and approved by Congress, it is binding; its terms are enforceable by the Supreme Court.

States use compacts to deal with issues regarding air and water pollution, pest control, toll bridges, and transportation.

Many compacts today deal with natural resources; others deal with how hazardous waste should be transported and disposed of. Interstate compacts have become an important way for the states to deal with regional problems.