FEDERAL

Relating to the general government or union of the
states; based upon, or created pursuant to, the laws
of the Constitution of the United States.
The United States has traditionally been
named a federal government in most political
and judicial writings. The term federal has not
been prescribed by any definite authority but is
used to express a broad opinion concerning the
nature of the form of government.
A recent tendency has been to use the
term national in place of federal to denote the
government of the Union. Neither settles any
question regarding the nature of authority of the
government.
The term federal is generally considered to
be more appropriate if the government is to be
viewed as a union of the states. National is used
to reflect the view that individual state govern-
ments and the Union as a whole are two distinct
and separate systems, each of which is estab-
lished directly by the population for local and
national purposes, respectively.
In a more general sense, federal is ordinarily
used to refer to a league or compact between two
or more states to become joined under one cen-