What is Federalism? Describe in detail the continuous discussion/argument over state power versus federal power. Include specific relevant court cases/current issues to support your essay. Furthermore, is there a point of apparent contradiction written within the Constitution itself? Can you please identify parts in the Constitution that seemingly direct us in competing directions? Who should have more power? What should the relationship look like in your eyes?

Federalism, at its core, is a system of government in which power is divided between a national government and other governmental units. In the case of the United States, federalism is represented by the federal government and individual state governments.The complex push-and-pull between these two sources of power has been a debate in the United States since its founding. The Articles of Confederation (1781) was the colonies' first attempt to reconcile the issue of state vs. federal sovereignty. The Articles, however, relied on a honor system between the states that they would convene meetings in order to make decisions about fundamental issues like taxation, disputed territories, and foreign policy, since control over these decisions was not given to a centralized government. Many politicians, including George Washington, believed that the powers given to the federal Congress in the Articles of Confederation were simply not enough to ensure a functioning nation. Their solution was to convene a Constitutional Convention to come up with a new document to enshrine the American system of federalism.The debates at the 1787 Convention were wide-ranging and extremely personal: state sovereignty and representation in government were open wounds for a nation that had just liberated itself from a monarchy. The Constitution itself was a major compromise between the Federalists (a political party that wanted a stronger central government) and the Anti-Federalists (a political party that wanted a weaker central government). Both parties wanted a system of federalism, but the balance between states' rights versus federal power would be an ongoing debate--one the Constitution purposefully left ambiguous.One of the most frequent modern critiques of the Constitution is the Electoral College system. Essentially, in this system, "electors" are voted upon by individual states (in a number proportional to that state's number of representatives in Congress), and then those electors would vote for president. There was logic to this: keeping the executive branch independent of the other branches and separate from the whims of the individual voter was a way of preventing corruption. Controversially, though, as we've seen in both the 2016 and the 2000 presidential elections, it is possible for a politician to receive the most citizens' votes and fail to secure the majority of Electoral College votes.The tension between states' rights and federal power has frequently been argued in state and federal courts. One commonly-cited Constitutional clause is the Commerce Clause, which grants that "The Congress shall have Power...To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." In the 1960s, the Commerce Clause was cited in civil rights cases in the 1960s. Southern states argued that segregation was a states' rights issue, rather than one that should be federally legislated. Advocates of ending segregation began to use the Commerce Clause to fight for equality on a federal level. Ultimately, they succeeded: in Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. U.S. (1964), the Supreme Court ultimately determined that segregation could be deemed illegal by Congress in places that served interstate travelers, like hotels. This opened the door to further anti-segregation legislation on a federal, rather than state, level.Again, it's important to note that the Constitution was never intended to serve as a perfect solution to the question of how power is balanced between state and federal governments. Instead, it was left purposefully ambiguous, open to changes as "We the People" see fit. Determining the proportions of power and the relationships between state and federal governments is an ongoing responsibility of the American people.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/commerce_clause