Also known as: general police powers · police power · state police power
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A state's inherent authority to enact legislation promoting the public health, safety, morals, or general welfare. The power extends to reasonable regulations of land use, business practices, and individual conduct so long as the measures bear a substantial relation to those public ends and do not violate federal constitutional limits.
Gretchen Graham owns acreage on the edge of a growing municipality. The city council adopts an ordinance that divides the area into residential, commercial, and industrial districts and bars industrial uses on her parcel. The classification is reasonable and advances public health and welfare, so the ordinance stands as a valid exercise of the general police power.
Gina Griffin, a local volunteer, carries an unloaded rifle in her truck while cleaning a stream near a school. Congress has banned such possession under the commerce power. The statute exceeds federal authority because the activity is noneconomic and intrastate, leaving the matter to the state's general police power.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Gerald Gibson owns a bakery and requires employees to work more than sixty hours a week. A state statute caps hours to protect worker health. The law is invalidated because it interferes with liberty of contract without a sufficient connection to public welfare under the general police power.
Grace Gupta owns a lot needed for a public street widening. The city condemns a strip of land and pays compensation. The taking is upheld as an exercise of eminent domain authority that remains subject to the limits that also constrain the general police power.
Genevieve Gardner's waterfront property is condemned for a private redevelopment project expected to increase tax revenue and jobs. The taking is sustained as satisfying the public-use requirement, an eminent-domain doctrine that operates alongside the general police power.
Gideon Graves's religious group plans to sacrifice animals in accordance with its faith. A city ordinance bans the practice under the guise of public health. The law is struck down because it targets religious conduct and therefore exceeds the bounds of the general police power.
States may enact any law that promotes public health, safety, morals, or welfare without citing a specific constitutional grant. The federal government must identify an enumerated power such as the commerce clause and may not rely on a general police power.
Yes. Comprehensive zoning that divides land into districts and restricts uses is a valid exercise of the general police power when the classification is reasonable and substantially related to public health, safety, morals, or welfare.
No. State exercises of the general police power remain subject to federal constitutional restraints such as the contracts clause, due process, equal protection, and the free exercise clause.
…violates the constitutional protection “to the right of property in the appellee by attempted regulations under the guise of the police power, which are unreasonable and confiscatory?” Building zone laws are of modern origin. They began in this country about twenty-five years ago. Until recent years, urban life was comparatively…