sovereignty

Examples of sovereignty in the following topics:

• The Sovereign States

  • The sovereignty of the states as opposed to the power of the federal government has been a longstanding issue in American politics.
  • Domestically, the federal government's sovereignty means that it may perform acts, such as entering into contracts or accepting bonds, that are typical of governmental entities but not expressly provided for in the Constitution or other laws.
  • Sometimes, the Supreme Court has even analogized the states to being foreign countries in relation to each other as a means to explain the American system of state sovereignty.
  • However, each state's sovereignty is limited by the U.S.
  • Compare the sovereignty of the states to the power of the federal government

• National Identity

  • Domestically, the federal government's sovereignty means that it may perform acts such as entering into contracts or accepting bonds, which are typical of governmental entities but not expressly provided for in the Constitution or laws.
  • Similarly, the federal government, as an attribute of sovereignty, has the power to enforce those powers that are granted to it.
  • Sometimes, the Supreme Court has even compared the states to being foreign countries in relation to each other to explain the American system of state sovereignty.
  • Each state's sovereignty is limited by the U.S.
  • As a result, although the federal government is recognized as sovereign and has supreme power over those matters within its control, the American constitutional system also recognizes the concept of "state sovereignty".

• "We the People"

  • The phrase can be seen as affirming that the national government created by the Constitution derives its sovereignty from the people; it can also be seen as confirming that the government under the Constitution was intended to govern and protect "the people" directly, as one society, instead of governing only the states as political units.
  • Domestically, the federal government's sovereignty means that it may perform acts, such as entering into contracts or accepting bonds, that are typical of governmental entities but not expressly provided for in the Constitution or other laws.
  • Similarly, the federal government, as an attribute of sovereignty, has the power to enforce those powers that are granted to it.
  • Sometimes, the Supreme Court has even analogized the states to being foreign countries in relation to each other as a means to explain the American system of state sovereignty.
  • However, each state's sovereignty is limited by the U.S.

• "The People"

  • It has also been construed to mean something like "all under the sovereign jurisdiction and authority of the United States. " The phrase has been construed as affirming that the national government created by the Constitution derives its sovereignty from the people, as well as confirming that the government under the Constitution was intended to govern and protect "the people" directly as one society instead of governing only the states as political units.
  • The Court has also understood this language to mean that the sovereignty of the government under the U.S.
  • Thomas Hobbes was a theorist of "sovereignty" in early modern political thought.
  • Explain from whom or from where the national government derives its sovereignty under the Constitution

• The Compromise of 1850

  • The Compromise of 1850 left the question of slave versus free states to popular sovereignty.
  • The territories of New Mexico and Utah would be organized on the basis of popular sovereignty.
  • By allowing popular sovereignty to determine slave or free states, the Senate basically guaranteed future discord over the sectional balance of power in the coming years.
  • In the Compromise of 1850, popular sovereignty was not defined as a guiding principle on the slave issue going forward.

• The Kansas–Nebraska Act

  • The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 mandated that popular sovereignty would determine the slave or free status in the region.
  • Douglas (IL), repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and mandated that popular sovereignty would determine any new territory's slave or free status.
  • Douglas and other representatives hoped that by tagging on the popular sovereignty mandate, they could avoid confronting the slave issue in the organization of the Kansas-Nebraska territory.

• Bleeding Kansas

  • The events later known as Bleeding Kansas were set into motion by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, which nullified the Missouri Compromise and instead implemented the concept of popular sovereignty.
  • The principle of popular sovereignty stated that inhabitants of each territory or state should decide whether it would be a free or slave state.
  • The Compromise of 1850, however, had mandated that popular sovereignty would determine any new territory's slave or free status.
  • The initial purpose of the Kansas–Nebraska Act was to open up many thousands of new farms and facilitate the development of a Transcontinental Railroad in the Midwest Douglas and other representatives hoped that by tagging on the popular sovereignty mandate, they could evade having to confront the slave issue in the organization of the Kansas-Nebraska territory.

• American Indian Rights

  • The movement for American Indian rights in the 1960s centered around the tension between rights granted via tribal sovereignty and rights that individual American Indians retain as U.S. citizens.
  • The AIM agenda focuses on spirituality, leadership, and sovereignty.
  • The Longest Walk in 1978 was an AIM-led spiritual walk across the country to support tribal sovereignty and bring attention to 11 pieces of anti-Indian legislation.
  • This 3,200-mile walk's purpose was to educate people about the U.S. government's continuing threat to tribal sovereignty; it rallied thousands representing many American Indian Nations throughout the United States and Canada.

• The Emergence of Abraham Lincoln

  • As the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Douglas' aim in the debates was to defend his position that popular sovereignty was the best method to legislate on the expansion of slavery, regardless of the Dred Scott decision.
  • Lincoln argued that legislating slavery based on popular sovereignty would nationalize and perpetuate slavery in both the territories and the northern states.
  • Therefore, popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott decision were departures from policies of the past.
  • Addressing Douglas' accusations that he was an abolitionist, Lincoln countered that popular sovereignty and Dred Scott set dangerous precedents and that the nation could not exist perpetually as half slave and half free.

• American Indian Relocation

  • Indian termination was a series of laws initiated in the 1940s but aggressively developed in the 1950s and 1960s that stripped Indian nations of their sovereignty and had disastrous consequences on the economic, social, and cultural condition of American Indians.
  • In essence, the policy terminated the government's recognition of tribal sovereignty, trusteeship of Indian reservations, and exclusion of Indians from state laws.
  • Termination began with a series of laws directed at dismantling tribal sovereignty and introduced in the 1940s.
  • They also fought political and legal battles in Washington, D.C. for the restoration of tribal sovereignty.
  • AIM was initially formed to address American Indian sovereignty, treaty issues, spirituality, and leadership, while simultaneously addressing incidents of police harassment and racism against Native Americans forced to move away from reservations and tribal culture by the 1950s-era enforcement of the U.S. federal government-enforced Indian termination policies.