June 2008 US History Regents?

Question

Passing marriage and divorce laws, creating

vehicle and traffic regulations, and setting high

school graduation requirements'are examples of

powers traditionally:

(1), exercised solely by local governments

(2) reserved to the state governments

(3) delegated entirely to the federal government

(4) shared by the national and local governments

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure that the answer is 2

Answer 2

I remember putting 2...final answer

Answer 3

I agree that this can be a tricky question - but the key word here is "traditionally."  All of these laws have "traditionally" varied from state to state.  Age requirements for marriage, driver's licenses, state exams and certification.  I keep seeing arguments about "No Child Left Behind" and "g*y Marriage" to support shared power by national and state governments - but read the question carefully - choice 4 is national and LOCAL governments - not state - so the only viable answer is choice 2 not 4.

Answer 4

It's is positively choice #2. No Child Left Behind Act is not really about high school requirements, high school requirements means like how many credits you need to pass, and what kind of finals you need to take. The government cannot control interstate commerce. And only states can control marriage and divorce law, that's why Massachusetts allows g*y marriage. And each state has different speed limits and traffic laws. Most importantly for the question, the answer choice has to include state government because we know the state controls at least some of these things. Local governments can't control any of these, and the little power the national government has in trumped by the state governments.

Edit: Sorry you're right about the Interstate Commerce, but how did that even relate to the question in the first place? Also, the GRE is for graduate school, not for high school, am I correct? And Bush is proposing that amendment, but that isn't really the federal government controlling marriage, as states would have to vote on it. And anyway, you have to remember this is a NYS Regents Exam and they just want to test very basic concepts. They group certain ideas together so that they can fit together like a puzzle, as in this question. Also notice the word "traditionally". Maybe there are some loopholes in the question, but generally the state controls these things.

Answer 5

I put two too!