HELP! Should bullying laws be governed by the federal or state?

[ricard83]

I think that the importance of the topic should be up to the state to figure out. The downside is that each state would have their own rules which may not be the same in every one of them when instead it could be up to the federal as one. Federal law is more concerned about more bigger problems like drug trafficking, homeland security, immigration and so on. If a child under 18 violates these laws, then the child will then have to be bullied by the big government for breaking the law and that wouldnt make any sense.

It is an essay topic for class but i dont know where to start. I need to come up with factors that should be taken into place when deciding which power (federal or state) should be in charge of making these laws and why.

[aviya]

There are 17 or 18 (depending on how you count) powers of the federal government which are specifically quantified in the Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution. Any federal laws outside of those enumerated powers are unconstitutional....and there are A LOT OF THEM...and should be nullified as they are powers of the individual states.

Bullying laws would fall outside of those federal authorities...so Constitutionally fall to the states.

Adorable...you are SOOOOOO wrong on that. Constitutionally, the federal government SHOULD BE smaller than state governments. And do not bring up the supremacy clause as that only applies to those few powers of the federal government. The federal government has taken MANY powers that are outside of their strict Constitutional limits. Even strong federalist Thomas Jefferson referred to this as an EVIL of the federal government. The Constitution was put forth AND ONLY AGREED TO because it put very few powers within the federal government and left almost all governing power with the state, closer to the people.

[taillefer]

I think federal because America let's states handle way too much. There needs to be a centralized law for a lot of topics. If we let states decide bullying laws some states will do great while others will fail. It's like we elect our President by state due to electoral college. Most other developed countries elect President by popular vote. When states have too much power our country becomes divided instead of united.

[lalla3]

The federal government is governed by the constitution. It's only allowed to do what the constitution explicitly says it can do. If there's somewhere in the constitution that addresses bullying, then it could fall under federal purview.

(hint: if you think you find something in there granting the federal government such authority, ask yourself why something like that hasn't been found in the previous 220+ years)