Federalism
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40 free Federalism trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Federalism is the reason an American can be taxed by two governments, carry a driver's licence that works in every state, and still find that the law changes at the state line. Power is split between a national government and the states, and for more than two centuries the two have argued in court over where the line falls. This quiz covers what a civics or AP Government class expects you to know: the parts of the Constitution that divide power, the landmark Supreme Court cases from the early republic to the present, the vocabulary of grants and mandates, and the eras that textbooks name after desserts. A handful of questions look abroad, at how other countries share power or keep it at the centre. It suits students revising for a test, teachers who want a ready-made review with answers and explanations, and anyone who has wondered why Washington cannot simply tell a state what to do.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Cooperative federalism, where Washington and the states share programs, takes its nickname from which dessert?
Marble cake
Marble cake was political scientist Morton Grodzins's image for governments whose work blends together like swirled flavors instead of sitting in separate tiers.
Q 02South Dakota v. Dole let Congress withhold highway funds from states that refused to raise what?
The drinking age
The drinking age became 21 in every state because a 1984 law cut highway funding to any that held out. The Court called that a fair condition on spending, not a command.
Q 03Which amendment, called a truism by the Supreme Court, reserves undelegated powers to the states or the people?
Tenth
The Tenth Amendment took its final form from Roger Sherman, who left out the word 'expressly' after Congress voted down a stricter version.
Q 04Which European federation is made up of 26 cantons, each with its own constitution, parliament and courts?
Switzerland
Switzerland still calls itself a confederation, though it has been a federal state since 1848. Before then each canton was sovereign, with its own army, currency and border controls.
Q 05Which clause of Article VI means that a valid federal law overrides any conflicting state law?
Supremacy
The Supremacy Clause came out of the New Jersey Plan and passed the Constitutional Convention unanimously. It also binds the judges of every state to follow federal law.
Q 06Gonzales v. Raich upheld federal power over patients growing medical cannabis legally under which state's law?
California
California voters had legalized medical cannabis in 1996, but the Court ruled 6–3 that Congress could still ban plants grown at home for personal use.
Q 07Which U.S. military force answers to state governors but can be ordered into federal service?
National Guard
The National Guard got its name in 1824, when New York militia units borrowed it from the French National Guard to honor the Marquis de Lafayette.
Q 08Which education law signed by George W. Bush tied federal school funding to yearly tests in reading and math?
No Child Left Behind
No Child Left Behind pushed Washington so far into classrooms that Congress reversed course in 2015 and turned much of the control over to state governments.
Q 09Which group led by Patrick Henry opposed ratifying the Constitution, fearing an overmighty national government?
Anti-Federalists
Anti-Federalists were given that name by their opponents, yet their pressure is the reason the Constitution gained a Bill of Rights.
Q 10McCulloch v. Maryland began when Maryland taxed which institution created by Congress and operating in Baltimore?
A national bank
A national bank was the target: Maryland's tax fell on every bank chartered outside the state, and the Second Bank of the United States was the only one.
Q 11What term describes powers, such as taxing and creating courts, that federal and state governments both hold?
Concurrent
Concurrent powers can be used by two governments at once, in the same territory and over the same citizens, so one paycheck can be taxed by both Washington and a state.
Q 12What term describes the powers of Congress listed one by one in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution?
Enumerated
Enumerated powers run from coining money and declaring war to setting up post offices and punishing pirates. Congress and the courts have drawn many implied powers out of them.
Q 13Which clause, nicknamed the Elastic Clause, lets Congress pass laws needed to carry out its listed powers?
Necessary and Proper
Q 21Gibbons v. Ogden broke a monopoly that New York had granted over which form of transport?
Steamboats
Steamboats running between New York and New Jersey were at stake. The ruling that Congress controls navigation among the states later supported federal rules for railroads and broadcasting.
Q 22In Wickard v. Filburn, Ohio farmer Roscoe Filburn was penalized for growing too much of which crop?
Wheat
Wheat that stayed on the farm still counted, a unanimous Court ruled, because a farmer who grows his own animal feed buys less on the open market.
Q 23Printz v. United States held that Congress could not order local sheriffs to carry out what for handgun sales?
Background checks
The Necessary and Proper Clause was attacked by Patrick Henry, who warned at Virginia's ratifying convention that it would lead to limitless federal power.
Q 14Which clause of Article IV makes each state honor the public acts, records and court rulings of the others?
Full Faith and Credit
The Full Faith and Credit Clause was carried over from the Articles of Confederation. It is why a court judgment won in one state can be enforced in another.
Q 15United States v. Lopez was the first ruling since 1937 to find Congress had exceeded its power under which clause?
Commerce
The Commerce Clause could not stretch to a federal ban on guns near schools, the Court held, because carrying one into a classroom is not economic activity.
Q 16Which amendment, ratified after the Civil War, has been used to apply most of the Bill of Rights to the states?
Fourteenth
The Fourteenth Amendment undid the effect of Barron v. Baltimore, an 1833 ruling that the Bill of Rights restrained only the federal government.
Q 17Before the Seventeenth Amendment took effect in 1913, who chose the members of the U.S. Senate?
State legislatures
State legislatures sometimes deadlocked so badly that a state went without any senators at all, one of the failures that built support for direct election.
Q 18Which chief justice wrote in McCulloch v. Maryland that the power to tax involves the power to destroy?
John Marshall
John Marshall used that line to strike down Maryland's tax, ruling that a state cannot be allowed to interfere with a federal institution.
Q 19Arizona v. United States struck down three of four challenged parts of SB 1070, a state law on which subject?
Immigration
Immigration belongs to Washington, the Court said, so Arizona could not make it a state crime to be in the country without carrying federal registration papers.
Q 20Texas v. White, an 1869 Supreme Court case about the sale of U.S. bonds, also held that no state may do what?
Secede unilaterally
Secede unilaterally is what the Court ruled out, calling every ordinance of secession 'absolutely null'. Confederate Texas had sold the bonds during the Civil War, and the postwar state sued to get them back.
Background checks were a stopgap duty under the Brady Act until a national system was ready. Sheriffs from Montana and Arizona sued, saying Congress cannot draft state officers.
Q 24NFIB v. Sebelius stopped Congress stripping existing funding from states that refused to expand which program?
Medicaid
Medicaid funding the states already received was at risk if they refused the expansion, and seven justices called that an unconstitutionally coercive use of the spending power.
Q 25What name is given to state authority over health, safety and morals, cited in 1905 to uphold compulsory vaccination?
Police power
Police power belongs mainly to the states. Washington has it only in limited settings, such as the territories, where the Constitution gives an express grant.
Q 26Which European kingdom became a federal state in 1993, with Dutch-, French- and German-speaking communities?
Belgium
Belgium needed four rounds of constitutional revision, from 1970 to 1993, to become a federal state, a compromise meant to let its language groups live together peacefully.
Q 27Which Asian federation's constitution divides lawmaking subjects between a Union List and a State List?
India
India lets its national parliament legislate even on State List subjects when the upper house, the Rajya Sabha, resolves by two-thirds that the national interest requires it.
Q 28What name is given to the transfer of powers from the UK Parliament to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?
Devolution
Devolution differs from federalism because the powers still belong in law to the UK Parliament, which could amend or repeal the acts that set up the new assemblies.
Q 29Which term describes a country such as France or Japan, where regions hold only the powers the centre delegates?
Unitary state
A unitary state is the commonest design in the world, used by a large majority of United Nations members, and its modern form took shape in France.
Q 30The Articles of Confederation described the union of the thirteen states as a firm league of what?
Friendship
Friendship was all the Articles promised, since each state kept its sovereignty, freedom and independence and Congress received only the powers expressly handed over.