Sample Solution

The federal government does not possess plenary legislative authority over the states in the United States due to the political philosophy of “Federalism”. This is based on a system of shared power between the Federal and individual state governments (Kirp, 2016). The idea behind Federalism is that certain matters should be handled by one level of government while others should be left up to another. This allows each level to act independently on issues that are more relevant to their jurisdiction rather than leaving it up to just one entity.

In practice, this means that when it comes to legislation within states, the federal government can only enact laws which impact matters falling under its enumerated powers or those delegated from state governments as outlined in Article 1 Section 8 of US Constitution (US Constitution, 1787). This includes things such as regulating interstate commerce and foreign affairs but does not extend into full-fledged control over state laws or regulations.

Overall, the purpose of Federalism is twofold: firstly it prevents concentrated power from developing at any one level so that citizens have representation across both federal & state levels & secondly it helps ensure uniformity when it comes to certain policies while still allowing for localized solutions depending on specific needs within different parts of country (Kirp, 2016).