[friend_and_foe]

That's not how the US federal system works at all. It's not even similar. States are free to not enforce federal law and ignore it entirely. States cannot be directly compelled by the federal government to pass laws, though in practice they have done it a couple of times using education funding and highway funding as a carrot/stick.

Another big difference is that the state governments themselves have no representation in the federal government since the passage of the 17th amendment.