17(> WRIGHT— LIMITATIONS UPON STATE POWERS. 



several prohibitions implied from the nature of the federal union 

 such as the prohibitions against secession" and the taxation of 

 agencies of the national government.'^ Other prohibitions have 

 been implied from the necessarily exclusive character of certain 

 powers delegated to the national government such as the power 

 to regulate foreign commerce, except purely local regulations, and 

 to provide for the naturalization of aliens.^ 



43. Action of National Organs Liniiting State Powers. 



State powers may also be restricted in their exercise by the 

 principle of national supremacy. As national organs exercise more 

 and more of their concurrent powers, state powers are correspond- 

 ingly reduced. For example when Congress passes bankruptcy 

 statutes or statutes fixing standards of weights and measures, the 

 state's power in these fields is lost and state statutes on the subject 

 automatically cease to operate though if the national statute is re- 

 pealed they automatically come into force again.^ 



The state police power has been greatly restricted by the more 

 complete exercise by the national government of its powers to 

 regulate interstate commerce, to establish postoffices and post roads 

 and to tax.^° No less remarkable, however, has been the reduction 

 of state powers through the exercise of national powers relating 

 to foreign relations. Thus wars have justified legislation by 

 Congress such as recently illustrated by the draft acts, acts author- 

 izing railroad, telegraph, food and fuel control, and acts punishing 

 espionage and disloyal conduct. These have all entered fields 

 ordinarily within state control. Similar reductions of state power 

 but in less degree have resulted from a state of neutrality and the 

 consequent operation of laws punishing offenses against neutrality, 

 authorizing national censorship of telegraph and radio communica- 

 tion and a closer supervision of commercial transactions. Even 



c Texas z: White, 7 Wall. 700 (1868). 



7 McCulloch V. Md., 4 Wheat. 316, 432; Dobbins z: Erie County, 16 



Pet. 435. 



s Willoughby, op. cit., pp. 73-/4 ; J. P. Hall, Constitutional Law, pp. 254, 

 288; Cooley V. Port Wardens, 12 How. 299; Chirac v. Chirac, 2 Wheat. 259. 



Willoughby, op. cit., pp. 74, 779. 



1" See Cushman, The Police Power of the National Government, 1920, 

 reprinted from the Minn. Lazv Rev., vols. 3, 4. 



