Police power

Police power

Police power is the capacity of a state to regulate behaviours and enforce order within its territory, often framed in terms of public welfare, security, morality, and safety. [cite encyclopedia| title =Police Power| encyclopedia =Encyclopedia Britannica|url =http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9060615/police-power| accessdate = 2007-02-08] Police power is legally considered an inherent power, limited only by prohibitions specified in the constitution of a state, making it the most expansive authorized power exercised by a state.Fact|date=June 2007

The concept of police power (or simply "police") in English common law dates back at least four centuries [cite encyclopedia| title =Police Power| encyclopedia =Encyclopedia of Public Health| publisher =Answers.com| url =http://www.answers.com/topic/police-power| accessdate = 2007-02-08] and roughly coincides with the breakdown of the feudal order in Europe and the development of towns and cities "(polis)". [cite book| last =Neocleous| first =Mark| title =Fabricating Social Order: A Critical History of Police Power| publisher =Pluto Press| date =2004| location =London| pages =1| id = ISBN 978-0-7453-1489-1] The exercise of police power can be in the form of making laws, compelling obedience to those laws through physical means with the aim of removing liberty, legal sanctions, or other forms of coercion and inducements. Controversies over the exercise of police power, particularly the use of physical means, arise when it conflicts with the rights of sub-national states and individuals or civil liberties, such as the police power of American states for example, or police brutality.

In American legal history, police power has a particular significance for interpreting the constitutional division of power. Nineteenth-century Supreme Court rulings confirmed that the federal government had certain powers delegated by the constitution, but that all unspecified regulatory powers, or "police power," rested with the states. The concept was expanded in the New Deal era to grant police power to the federal government under the commerce clause of the constitution, extending it to the provision of services to enhance public welfare. [cite encyclopedia| title =Police Power| encyclopedia =Encyclopedia of American History| publisher =Answers.com| url =http://www.answers.com/topic/police-power| accessdate = 2007-02-08] US courts now rely on a "balance of interests" doctrine to settle contests over police power. [cite encyclopedia| title =Police Power| encyclopedia =Encyclopedia Britannica|url =http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9060615/police-power| accessdate = 2007-02-08]

Delegation of power of self defense

French Economist Frédéric Bastiat advanced the following democratic theory of police power in his 1849 book, "The Law". [See [http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/anarchism/library/thelaw.html The Law] , by Frédéric Bastiat] : The police power is essentially derived from the individual power of self-defense. If someone attacks you, he argues, you have a right, given to you by God [ [http://www.ozarkia.net/bill/anarchism/library/thelaw.html#What_is The Law, Chapter 3] ] , to use force to resist, or detain this person, and as people come together by compact to form democratic forms of self-rule, it becomes practical for citizens to delegate this power to an external body, such as to a militia or police force.

Uses of police power

The most common use of police power over real property is for the adoption and enforcement of zoning regulations, building codes, and environmental protection regulations, by local, regional, and national governments.

Other uses of the police power include public health regulations, vice laws, traffic laws, and family law. However, it is impossible to give a complete list of the uses of police power because a state can write any command or prohibition as a law and make people obey it, as long as such laws do not contradict constitutions or other laws with precedent.

Police power in the United States

Under the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution, the powers prohibited from or not delegated to the Federal Government are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people. This implies that the states do not possess all possible powers, since some of these are reserved to the people. The powers reserved to the states by the Constitution, include all powers the states retained prior to 1789 ("U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton"). The framers of the U.S. Constitution believed that the states were empowered, like the British Parliament, with general authority to act on behalf of the welfare of their people but, unlike the British Parliament, subject to the restrictions of written state and federal constitutions.

Police powers are, from the point of view of state courts, also restricted by state constitutions. The concept of police power is used by federal courts which do not have jurisdiction to interpret state constitutions: from the point of view of federal constitutional law, states have general police powers except where restricted by the federal Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court has often held that police powers are limited, even before reaching specific Constitutional provisions. One of many such statements:

:Police powers, broadly stated and without, at present, any attempt at a more specific limitation, relate to the safety, health, morals and general welfare of the public. [http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0198_0045_ZO.html]

Cases such as "Lawrence v. Texas" suggest that intimate morals are no longer a legitimate subject of the police power except to the extent that health or safety are involved.

Because the Congress has limited powers granted in the Constitution, the Federal government does not have a general police power, as the states do. The exceptions are laws regarding Federal property and the military. On the other hand, Congress was granted by the New Deal Court a broad quasi-police authority from its power to regulate interstate commerce and raise and spend revenue.

ee also

*Law and order (politics)
*Police

References


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • police power — see power 2a Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996. police power n. A …   Law dictionary

  • Police power — (Law) The inherent power of a government to regulate its police affairs. Note: The term police power is not definitely fixed in meaning. In the earlier cases in the United States it was used as including the whole power of internal government, or …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • police power — the power of a nation, within the limits of its constitution, to regulate the conduct of its citizens in the interest of the common good. [1820 30, Amer.] * * * Power of a government to exercise reasonable control over people and property within… …   Universalium

  • police power — An authority conferred by the American constitutional system in the Tenth Amendment, U.S. Const., upon the individual states, and, in turn, delegated to local governments, through which they are enabled to establish a special department of… …   Black's law dictionary

  • police power — noun : the inherent power of a government to exercise reasonable control over persons and property within its jurisdiction in the interest of the general security, health, safety, morals, and welfare except where legally prohibited (as by… …   Useful english dictionary

  • police power — A term impossible of abstract, and incapable of complete, definition. Berman v Parker, 348 US 26, 99 L Ed 27, 75 S Ct 98. In one sense, the whole power of government to which all other powers are only incidental and ancillary; nothing more or… …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • police power — noun Date: 1827 the inherent power of a government to exercise reasonable control over persons and property within its jurisdiction in the interest of the general security, health, safety, morals, and welfare except where legally prohibited …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • police power — noun The inherent power, incident to sovereignty, of a state to regulate and exercise reasonable control over matters of public health, public morals, public safety, and in general, all things relating to the general welfare …   Wiktionary

  • federal police power — A power analagous to the police power of the states; the police power appropriate to the exercise of any attribute of sovereignty specifically granted the federal government by the Constitution of the United States. 16 Am J2d Const L §. 276 …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • state police power — Every state has power to enact laws for the protection of its citizens health, welfare, morals and safety and such power is derived from the 10th Amendment, U.S.Const. This power is upheld if exercised in a manner consistent with its ends and if… …   Black's law dictionary

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