and it usually makes no effort to work in harmony with the other boards which have charitable or corrective work. Many states have recently combined not only many commissions into a single department of charities and corrections, but they have united other separate boards if their duties are alike. courts. 198. The State Courts. - Our state and local govern- State and ments perform many more tasks than does the national national government, and these duties bring them into close touch with the citizen in his everyday life. Because of this fact, almost all civil and criminal suits brought for trial in the United States are tried in state courts, rather than in those of the nation. Not only are these suits begun in state tribunals, but, if they do not involve points of national law, the decision of the highest state courts to which the case may be carried is final, for the case may not be appealed to any other court whatsoever. courts. At the apex of every state judicial system is a single court, Different to which all important cases may be appealed for final decision. state This highest court has, as a rule, no original jurisdiction; that is, it considers only those cases tried first in a lower court.1 Below the highest court, each state is divided into a suitable number of circuits or districts over each of which presides a court, called a circuit or district court as the case may be. These courts may have original jurisdiction in important suits, but most of their time is spent in trying appeal cases, which come from those next lower, the county courts. The judges of these courts are in one sense county officials, because they are elected by the voters of the counties, although the cases tried before them involve state laws 1 Some of the states call the highest court the Court of Appeals, and have in addition another court for the whole state, which is known as the Supreme Court; but some of them have only one court for the entire state, the name Supreme being usually applied to this. The number of judges in these courts is usually three, five, or seven, and they are ordinarily chosen for a long term of years by the voters of the entire state. Occasionally they are elected by the voters of districts equal in number to the number of the judges, but in six states they are appointed by the governors, and in five by the legislatures. Judges and sessions. Powers di rectly or indenied to the directly states. more frequently than local laws. The base of the judicial pyramid is formed by the country justices of the peace, or by the city courts, criminal and civil, whose jurisdiction is of necessity wholly original and confined to minor cases or those involving local laws. Except in a few of the Eastern states, these judges are elected by the voters of the section within which the court has jurisdiction, and, with a few notable exceptions, elections are held at least every four years. As the business of the inferior state courts is more voluminous than important, each judge holds court separately, whereas in the higher courts all the judges constituting the court usually sit together for the trial of cases.1 FUNDAMENTAL LAWS AND SPHERE OF ACTIVITY 199. Sphere of State Action. It is difficult to realize the variety of activities left to the states, that is, to the people of the states governed through their "state" and local governments. We may get some conception of the extent of their power if we notice what powers are denied to the states directly or indirectly. All powers granted to the national government alone are indirectly denied to the states.2 In addition the United States Constitution enumerates many powers which the states may not assume." 1 That all of these judges are really state officers, even when elected by the localities, may be shown by the statement that they are removable in most of the states by the legislatures, either through impeachment or by a majority vote of both houses. 2 The United States Constitution enumerates the powers granted to the national government, such as the right to levy taxes, declare war and make peace, provide an army and a navy, arrange treaties, regulate foreign and interstate commerce, coin money, and govern national territory; and the same Constitution mentions which of these powers and what others are especially forbidden to the states. No state can engage in war or raise an army unless actually invaded, nor collect duties upon imported goods except for the national treasury, nor make any treaty. The states may not coin money, issue paper money, "make anything but gold or silver a tender payment of debts, pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility." Furthermore, no state may establish a system of slavery, "make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens Unless, however, a power is granted to the United States Powers left government exclusively, or denied to the states in explicit to the states language, it may be exercised by any state as it sees fit. This very broad sphere of state activity we shall consider under the three following heads: (1) a summary of the classes of duties performed by the states; (2) the uniformity and diversity in legislation and administration among the different states on the subjects left to their control; and (3) the constitutions under which these powers are actively exercised. Duties deal state and local govern ment. 200. Classes of Duties performed by the States. We may consider briefly five important classes of duties ing with performed by our states. (I) The first of these deals with state and local government, subject to the limitation of the national Constitution that the governments shall be republican in character. The states create such "state" and local governments as they please under such constitutions as they wish, provided the constitution does not seek to exercise any of the powers which are forbidden. In addition the people of the states also decide who shall be voters, that is, who may take part in the work of governing either state or nation.1 of the indi (II) Individual rights are protected from government Constitutional rights officials far more by our state constitutions than by our national Constitution, because the rights with which the vidual. officials are likely to interfere are rights which we have under the state governments. (III) The states have practically entire charge in making all laws dealing with our personal relations with one another, the laws dealing with property, and the laws under which almost all of our business is done, including the organization of corporations (§ 277). The legal relations of husband to of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." No state is allowed to abridge the right of citizens of the United States to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 1 Theoretically, this power is limited by the fifteenth amendment. Vast scope laws of the state. of the privat Work of the state courts. Administra the states. wife, of parent to child, of employer to employee, of principal to agent are determined by the states and not by the national government. For example, all our marriage and divorce laws, laws relating to labor, any law dealing with contracts which one person makes with another are state laws. Our right to hold real or personal property, to buy or sell anything, or to inherit a bequest is exercised under state laws. (IV) The enumeration of individual rights in the state constitution and the making of the laws just mentioned necessarily involves some means of protecting those individuals whose rights under the constitutions or laws have been infringed by other persons. Our system of state courts seeks to protect any one who has been injured by another, in order that the innocent and defenseless may not suffer at the hands of the powerful and unscrupulous.1 (V) The administrative work done by our states chiefly tive work of through the local governments is of almost infinite variety. One needs but to mention education (§§ 242-247), health (§§ 255-259), streets, public buildings, and other public improvements to give some idea of the scope of this work. 201. Uniformity and Diversity in State Legislation. — should not be Since the states, not necessarily the state governments, have the power to make such laws as they please in relation to the subjects which we have just considered, it is quite interesting to know whether the laws of the various states are very much alike. If the states have a dozen different kinds of laws regulating the making and enforcement of contracts, persons in different states cannot do business with one another. Nowadays we feel that these laws not only should be, but must be, more or less similar, for no Why there great diver sity in laws in different states. 1 As comparatively few crimes are committed in violation of national laws, practically all criminals are tried by state courts and punished in state institutions because they break laws which have been passed by the state legislatures for the protection of the rights and property of citizens. As most cases tried in a state court may not be appealed to a national court unless they involve national law, which comparatively few cases do, the administration of justice in all those matters which concern us most closely is a phase of state activity. state is willing to depend upon its own people for all that it needs. We believe that state boundaries ought not to be division lines between radically different systems of law. Interstate trade or interstate travel is no longer a thing of rare occasion, but an everyday affair, and the need of uniformity in all of the great principles of state law is becoming constantly greater. The degree of uniformity in state laws is much more marked than the diversity, because the differences are ordinarily in DETAILS, while the GENERAL PRINCIPLES of state law are every where much the same. As President Woodrow Wilson says: We feel the conflicts because we suffer under their vexations; while we fail to realize and appreciate the uniformities, because they are normal, and have come to seem matters of course." Uniformity in general prin ciples of state law. diversity in corporation control and divorce law. Variations in state laws upon important subjects, how- Unfortunate ever, are quite numerous and often objectionable. An illustration of the difficulties of governing and the problems of proper control which are due to a lack of uniform legislation is furnished in connection with corporations (§§ 274-278). Another example of trouble caused by differences of state legislation arises in connection with divorce (§§ 82, 83). Means of se greater Various methods have been tried in order to secure more uniform legislation. In many cases conferences such as the curing annual meetings of state executives called the "House of uniformity. Governors" have been held in order to agree upon desirable legislation or improved uniform methods of administration. Most important of all is the work of the Commission of Uniform Laws, recommending to their states the adoption of laws, forms, and methods which should be as nearly uniform as possible in all of the states. State a Constitution. The Relation to 202. The Character of nature of the government in any state and the extent to which it makes use of any powers in the state sphere of activities depends upon its state constitution. A state constitution is the fundamental law which the people of the state have arranged for their government and pro the law of the state. |