About the USA

The United States of America is a federation of 50 constituent States. The capital, Washington, is a separate Federal District, the District of Columbia.

As concerns the locations of powers and functions, the powers assigned to the Federation are enumerated in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. They include foreign affairs, defence, citizenship and naturalization, the regulation of commerce (including bankruptcy law) and the higher levels of justice. By Section 10 the States are explicitly withheld these powers as well as the right of imposing duties on imports and exports. In principle all residual powers fall to the States, which is embodied in the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1791. The States powers are therefore comparatively larger than in most federations. A survey of the distribution of powers between the Union and the States would be incomplete, however, without mentioning the implied powers which the last paragraph of Section 8 grants to the Federal authority. These are powers which are not explicitly allocated by the Constitution but inferred, based on a broad interpretation of other expressed or enumerated powers. For example, provision of welfare and medical services is being progressively standardized by Federal legislation. It is implied powers, therefore, which account for the fact that the constitutional balance of power between the two levels of government remains a dynamic element adaptable to the changing requirements of an evolving society.

In the event of conflict between Federal and State law the former will prevail according to Article VI of the Constitution.

Each State has its own constitution and elected Legislature. All 50 States have bicameral legislatures save Nebraska. Usually there is a Legislative Reference Service with a library which serves both chambers of the Legislature. The district of Columbia has an elected Council, however, Congress retains ultimate authority over its legislative enactments.

The US has 5 territories and a number of small insular possessions. The 5 territorries are unincorporated and, thus, not all provisions of the US Constitution apply to them. The territorial governments have legislative, judicial, and executive branches. In every case the executive branch is headed by a popularly elected governor.

There are two US commonwealth territories, the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea. A commonwealth is a self-governing territory in political union with the United States. Both have bicameral legislatures. Puerto Rico elects a nonvoting Resident Commissioner to the US House of Representatives.

American Samoa, as an unorganized territory, has not been provided with an organic act by Congress. Instead the US Secretary of the Interior, on behalf of the President, has plenary authority over the Territory and enabled the people of American Samoa to draft their own constitution. Under the 1967 Constitution, legislative power is vested in the Fono (Legislature). The Fono consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. American Samoans are US nationals. American Samoa sends a nonvoting delegate to the US House of Representatives.

Guam is an organized unincorporated territory. It is governed under the Organic Act of Guam of 1950 which gave the island local power of self-government, and made its inhabitants citizens of the United States. Guam has a unicameral Legislature has with 21 members. The territory elects a nonvoting delegate to the US House of Representatives.

The Government of the US Virgin Islands is organized under the provisions of the Organic Act of the Virgin Islands, passed by the Congress of the United States in 1936 and revised in 1954. Inhabitants of the Virgin Islands became US citizens in 1927.

Legislative power is vested in the Legislature of the Virgin Islands, a unicameral body composed of 15 senators. In 1976, the people of the Virgin Islands were granted the right to draft their own constitution, subject to the approval of the US Congress and voters in the local referendum. The Virgin Islands is represented in the House of Representatives by a nonvoting delegate

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