[Lawdog]

Originally Posted by dorkenbutt

I asked lawpuppy how a creation of the people (government) can be sovereign?

My boy, the problem with your questions is that you appear not to understand the very nature of government in this country. I recommend the Federalist Papers. In a shorter vein, I offer this quote from New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144 (1992):

Both the States and the United States existed before the Constitution. The people, through that instrument, established a more perfect union by substituting a national government, acting, with ample power, directly upon the citizens, instead of the Confederate government, which acted with powers, greatly restricted, only upon the States. Lane County v. Oregon, 7 Wall. at 76 (emphasis added). The Court has made the same point with more rhetorical flourish, although perhaps with less precision, on a number of occasions. In Chief Justice Chase's much-quoted words, the preservation of the States, and the maintenance of their governments, are as much within the design and care of the Constitution as the preservation of the Union and the maintenance of the National government. The Constitution, in all its provisions, looks to an indestructible Union, composed of indestructible States. Texas v. White, 7 Wall. 700, 725 (1869). See also Metcalf & Eddy v. Mitchell, 269 U.S. 514, 523 (1926) ("neither government may destroy the other nor curtail in any substantial manner the exercise of its powers"); Tafflin v. Levitt, 493 U.S. 455, 458 (1990) ("under our federal system, the States possess sovereignty concurrent with that of the Federal Government"); Gregory v. Ashcroft, 501 U.S. at ___ ("the States retain substantial sovereign powers under our constitutional scheme, powers with which Congress does not readily interfere").

There you have it. The kernel of sovereign authority was split between the federal government on the one hand, and the states on the other.