WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK 1989-1990


  In addition, there are a number of other powers which the original states
specifically delegated
to the U.S. Congress. Among these are the power to regulate interstate and
foreign commerce,
maintain armed forces, declare war, coin money, impose and collect taxes,
establish a postal
system, and grant patents and copyrights. Congress also has power to "make
all laws which
shall be necessary and proper" for carrying out the responsibilities
delegated to it. In all areas in
which the states have not delegated power to the federal government, they
remain sovereign, as
specified in the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
       The 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.
  Although the powers delegated to the federal government and the powers
reserved to the
states seem to be neatly delineated, in practice it has not turned out to
be that simple. Many
powers are exercised concurrently by the federal government and the states.
Through judicial
interpretation, the powers exercised by Congress have been greatly expanded
to include many
topics which were once considered reserved to the states or which were not
even imagined by the
drafters, such as regulation of television and radio or development of a
space exploration pro-
gram. Likewise, states have had to broaden their authority as society and
technology have
changed.

                              The Many Sources of State Law

  Prior to landing at Plymouth Rock, the Pilgrims adopted the brief Mayflower
Compact to
govern their settlement. As the role of government has become far more complicated,
the legal
framework in which governments operate has become far more detailed. Actually,
even the
Pilgrims did not start in a legal vacuum. They had brought with them a European,
principally
Anglo-Saxon, legal heritage. The law continued to develop in the American
colonies, moving
inland from the Atlantic Coast as the frontier advanced westward.
  When the first Wisconsin territorial legislature met in Belmont in 1836,
it passed a law:
       ....*that the existing laws of Michigan, as declared in full force
in this territory by the
     act of congress organizing the territory of Wisconsin, be taken and
construed liberally
     and beneficially, for the purpose of giving the said laws full force
and effect, according
     to the true intent and meaning thereof.
  The Wisconsin Constitution continued the laws of the Territory of Wisconsin,
by providing in
Section 2 of Article XIV:
       All laws now in force in the territory of Wisconsin which are not
repugnant to this
     constitution shall remain in force until they expire by their own limitation
or be altered
     or repealed by the legislature.
  In addition to the U.S. Constitution and the Wisconsin Constitution, the
government of the
State of Wisconsin today is regulated by the laws contained in over 4,500
pages of the Wisconsin
Statutes. Even this body of law is not detailed enough. The Wisconsin Legislature
has found
that there are some areas which are so technically complex that the implementation
must be left
to the specialists charged with administering the law. To make this possible,
the law invests state
agencies with administrative rule-making power.
   Notwithstanding the detailed wording of statutory law and administrative
rules, there will still
be specific points which are subject to various interpretations. In these
cases, the formal law is
further defined by courts or administrative commissions which can interpret
the constitution and
state law through formal written decisions. To illustrate the sheer quantity
of case law, the
current briefly annotated text of the Wisconsin Constitution occupies 32
pages, and the Wiscon-
sin Statutes, 3 volumes, while the opinions of the Wisconsin Supreme Court,
adjudicating those
documents, fill shelf upon shelf with 424 bound volumes, known as the Wisconsin
Reports.

                              Making State Government Work

   Frequently it is said that in our 3-branch state government, the legislative
branch makes the
 law or sets the public policy; the executive branch carries out, or executes,
the law; and the
 judicial branch interprets the law. This very simple description of state
government tells only


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