ABSTRACT

The United States is a federal nation. As such, autonomous and consti-tutionally protected powers are vested in both federal and state gov-ernment. Article 1, section 8, of the Constitution enumerates the powers of Congress. The tenth amendment stipulates that powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, “are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The Constitution thus prescribes and protects two layers of government. Below those two levels there is a third: local government.