91 Corpus Juris Secundum 1955

§ 1 UNITED STATES

I. DEFINITION NATURE AND EXTENT

§ 1. Definition

The term “United States of America” is variously used to designate a sovereign power, the territory over which the sovereignty of the United States extends, or the states which are united by and under the Constitution. For some purposes it includes, and for others excludes, particular territorial possessions. The term “United States of America” may be used in any one of a number of senses. Thus it may be used merely as the name of a sovereign occupying the position analogous to that of other sovereigns in the family of nations, it may designate territory over which the sovereignty of the United States extends, or it may be the collective name of the states which are united by and under the Constitution. In a political or governmental sense, the “United States of America” is the republic or federal state whose organic law is the Constitution adopted by the people of the thirteen states, which declared their independence of the government of Great Britain on July 4, 1776.

In a territorial or geographical sense, the term “United States,” as used in the Constitution with respect to the provision that duties shall be uniform throughout the United States, includes the states whose people united to form the Constitution, and such as have since been added to the union on an equality with them, as well as the District of Columbia, but not unorganized territorial possessions. On the other hand, in dealing with a foreign sovereignty the term has a broader meaning than when used in the Constitution, and includes all territories subject to the jurisdiction of the federal government wherever located. As used in laws imposing customs duties the term is held not to include territory which by conquest and military occupation is in possession of a public enemy.

§ 2. Nature

The United States is a single nation; an indestructible union of equal and indestructible states. It is a body politic and corporate.

The people of the United States established a national government with sovereign attributes, including legislative, executive, and judicial powers; and the United States is, for many important purposes at least, a single nation. The articles of confederation acted only on the states, but the Constitution acts directly on all the people, and they are directly responsible, and not mediately through the states. The powers of sovereignty are divided between the federal and state governments under this complex federal system; they are each sovereign with respect to the rights committed to it, and neither sovereign with respect to the rights committed to the other. The union between the states is a union of equal states, and all the provisions of the Constitution look to an indestructible union of indestructible states. As stated in the C J S title States § 7, wherein the subject is more fully discussed, the United States is not, in relation to the several states, regarded as a foreign nation.

The United States is a body politic and corporate, and is, for some purposes, although not others, treated as a “person.” When the United States enters into commercial business, it abandons its sovereign capacity and is to be treated like any other corporation.

II. GOVERNMENT

A. IN GENERAL

§ 4. Powers in General

The governmental powers of the United States, to the extent that they are conferred or not withheld by the Constitution, are supreme and paramount. The United States has no inherent sovereign powers, and no legislative powers other than those conferred by the Constitution.

The United States is a nation whose powers of government— legislative, executive, and judicial— within the sphere of action confined to it by the Constitution are supreme and paramount. The Constitution does not, however, make any general grant of power, but states the legislative powers that are granted, and provides that powers not delegated to the United States, or prohibited to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people, and it has therefore become an accepted constitutional rule, as discussed in Constitutional Law § 68, that this is a government of enumerated or delegated powers, and that it has only such powers as have been conferred on it, expressly or by necessary implication. There is, however, a distinction, in this respect, between the legislative power and the judicial power, since, as provided in the Constitution, Article 3 § 1, the entire judicial power of the nation is vested in its supreme court and in such inferior courts as congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Constitution, Article 2 § 1, also confers the entire executive power on the president in general terms.

The United States has no inherent sovereign powers and no inherent common-law prerogatives, and it has no power to interfere in the personal or social relations of citizens by virtue of authority deducible from the general nature of sovereignty, but it has so much of the royal prerogatives as belonged to the king of England in his capacity of parens patriae or universal trustee. However, this lack of inherent powers has been held limited to domestic matters as distinguished from external matters, and with respect to the latter the powers of the federal government are not derived from the Constitution and are not among the enumerated or implied powers but are inherent, having come into being before the adoption of the Constitution and now existing outside it. The United States takes no power or authority from state constitutions or laws. It has been said broadly that all activities of the government, constitutionally authorized by congress, are governmental in nature and performed in its sovereign capacity, and that the United States does not have separate governmental and proprietary capacities; but it has also been held, as discussed supra § 2, that when the United States enters into commercial business it abandons its sovereign capacity and is to be treated like any other corporation, and, as considered infra § 7 a, the United States may own land within the territory of a state in a proprietary capacity only.

§ 5. Powers in Carrying into Effect Powers Granted

In addition to the powers expressly conferred on the United States by the Constitution, it has all the attributes of sovereignty, except as restricted by the Constitution, as well as such powers as are necessary to carry into effect the granted powers. As discussed supra § 4, the government of the United States, at least with respect to domestic matters, is one of enumerated powers, and it has no inherent sovereign powers, but it is a national sovereignty, within the scope of its enumerated powers, and has all the attributes of sovereignty, except as restricted by the Constitution, and its prerogatives as a sovereign nation are coextensive with the powers committed to it, so that, touching matters within its jurisdiction, it has inherent power to promote the general welfare. There is also a wide scope of selection of the means for the execution of the enumerated powers under what has been termed the “coefficient power” which, as discussed in Constitutional Law § 68, is the power to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into effect the enumerated powers and all other powers vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States or in any department or officer thereof. The words “necessary and proper” include all means which are conducive or adapted to the end to be accomplished and which, in the judgment of congress, would most advantageously effect the end; and it has been said that the nature and purpose of the federal government require that it be subject to restraints less narrow and confining than the individual states. In the exercise of its power to spend in the general welfare the means employed to attain the end must be plainly adapted thereto. The scope and incidents of the government’s express and implied powers are the same, and a power may be implied as an incident to a power which is itself implied. As discussed in Constitutional Law § 177, although the United States has no general police power, it has whatever police power is appropriate to the exercise of any attribute of sovereignty specifically granted to it, and may, by virtue of its sovereignty, take such measures as are necessary to insure peace and order in performance of any of its functions. Thus, it has power to protect its own sovereignty, and it is always charged with the duty of protecting the rights and property of its citizens. It is also vested with all the powers of government necessary to maintain effective control of international relations.

On the principle of sovereignty growing out of the aggregation of the enumerated powers including the coefficient power, the United States has been held to have the power to issue legal tender notes. On the other hand, the United States has been held to be without power to seize private property generally, fix the prices of commodities, or grant a moratorium.

Private business. Although the United States does not have the power to engage in private business, except as incidental to some power specifically granted under the Constitution, it may do so to an appropriate degree in carrying out its constitutional functions and purposes.

Production and sale of electric power. The United States has the power to generate electric power to aid its operations in carrying out the granted power of improving navigable waters, providing for the national defense or regulating the proprietary property of the government, and may dispose of any surplus power unused for such purposes to prevent waste, but it may not produce and sell electric power except as incidental to a constitutionally granted power.

§ 6. Government of New Territory Acquired

As an attribute of sovereignty, the United States may acquire new territory and exercise jurisdiction over it. The boundaries of the United States can be enlarged and new territory acquired by the treaty- making power or the legislative authority, and the United States may govern new territory acquired by cession, without incorporating it as an integral part of itself under its organic laws. The power to acquire jurisdiction over property by treaty, war, discovery, or cession, whether such jurisdiction be a limited one or not, is an attribute of sovereignty.