State Constitutions & General Police Powers

[RJLipkin at aol.com]

One way we contrast (in  class) the federal government and state government 
is that the Constitution  limits the former to enumerated powers while the 
latter has generalized police  powers.  But states have constitutions also. So is 
the reason their  constitutional systems grant them general police 
powers--denied to the Federal  Constitution--that state constitutions contain provisions 
granting general  police powers? In other words, if both federal and state 
governments have  constitutions why is there a distinction between the former 
being a limited  government while the latter having general police powers?
 
        A corollary question: In  state constitutional cases, do courts first 
determine whether the state  government has the authority, according to the 
state constitution, to legislate  in a particular manner?
 
Bobby

Robert Justin Lipkin
Professor of Law
Widener  University School of Law
Delaware
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/private/conlawprof/attachments/20060121/26e80fb9/attachment.html