They cannot Print money, wage wars, or regulate commerce. The state can issue licenses and regulate commerce only within state borders.

There is very significant intrusion of the federal government in the regulation of what is in practice intra-State commerce, due to the Dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution ("the negative implications of the Commerce Clause").

The American state (the American nation or the entirety of the United States) is not the same as an American Stateor U.S. State, of which there are currently fifty of these co-sovereigns.