Why does federal law supersede state law?

Question

When there is a conflict between a federal law and a state law, why does the federal law prevail?

Answer 1

This is really a much more complicated question than it may at first appear. The Supremacy Clause (article 4 or 6 of the constitution) establishes fed law and treaties as the "supreme law of the land". It was necessary for this to be included in the Constitution because under the articles of confederation congress did not have the power to enforce tax collection or "federal" law and by the mid 1780's things were a mess and led to the construction of the constitution as we know it.

Answer 2

Let's go for the actual quote:

Article 6 Section 2: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made or which shall be made under the Authority of the United States shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding".

So, basically, the US Constitution sets itself (and federal law) above state law, including state constitutions. The federal Constitution is above federal laws and treaties because of a case called Marbury v. Madison. Since the Constitution was so difficult to change, and since it included specific rules on how to change it (Article V), any federal laws which came later that contradicted the Constitution were preempted as being in conflict.

Answer 3

Because the US government has SEVERAL levels
HIGHEST level-FEDERAL (i.e. a little document known as the constitiution)
second higest level, state
third level, county/parrish
fourth level- city.
this insures that things like money is consistent across state lines and that mass murderers go to jail no matter what state they're in and that legal marriages are recognized from state to state, just to name a few examples. and the law that does the greater good is usually federal law.

Answer 4

because we are a collection of UNITED states we have a federal government to hold us together. otherwise every state could print their own money that wwas different than other states so the constitution give certain powers to the feds, certain powers to the states, and ALL other powers to the people.

now that i have established that...

when there is a conflict the feds win out becasue they are a higher power and are choosing in the best interest of all the people in the country not just one state because the people give the gov't all of its power (fed and state and even local)

Answer 5

because that's what the citizens of the USA and the founding fathers wanted. In the constitution it states : ...this document shall supercede all others and be the supreme law of the land....sorry a paraphrase!

Answer 6

Because the Civil War settled that question once and for all.

Answer 7

Think about it for a while!