Whenever you here anything relating to the supreme law of the land supreme law of the land, at least in the United States , it refers to the laws in the United States Constitution. Sometimes the supreme law of the land is connected to the federal supremacy clause. The supremacy clause refers to the concept that federal laws trump state laws. So if there is a state law that regulates the same laws as the federal law, the federal law rules over the state law. If the state law is drastically different from the federal law or impedes upon the federal law, the federal law reigns supreme. The state law however can be more restrictive than federal law, and if the federal law is silent on an issue the state law is likely valid.
The supreme law of the land overall is basically federal law, in particular the United States Constitution. In addition, the bill of rights (originally only applying to the federal government) also applies to the states through the 14th amendment of the United States. Before the supreme law of the land, every state had its own set or form of the supreme laws that governed the states own territory. There was no laws that governed all the states brought all the states together. So while there was a federal congress at the time there was no way that congress could enforce any of the states or its citizens to obey its laws. Congress could not accept taxes, raise a military, regulate mail. All they could basically do is hand out very elegant opinions of what states should do. The fear of not lasting as a nation and being to divided led to the convention of 1787, where all the representatives of the states agreed to begin serious inquires into the establishment of a strong central government for the country to survive.
In the United States Constitution, only Article VI mentions the “supreme law of the land”. It is found in this part of the U.S. Constitution.
Basically for those of you who have not been able to follow along:
The Supreme Law of the Land = The Constitution of the United States
What Does The Constitution Do? = It basically organizes, creates, regulates, and establishes the federal government of the United States.
