Federalism in the United States: Difference between revisions

{{US Constitution article series}}

{{United States constitutional law}}

 

== Early federalism ==

 

 

On May 15, 1787, fifty-five delegates met at what would be known as the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention]] in the [[Philadelphia]] State House. There, the delegates debated the structure, provisions, and limitations of [[Federalism]] in what would be the [[Constitution of the United States]]. This was a clear development in federal thought.<ref name=":1" />

Madison later wrote in [[Federalist No. 10]] on his support for a federal government, "the smaller the number of individuals composing a majority, and the smaller the compass within which they are placed, the more easily will they concert and execute their plans of oppression. Extend the sphere, and you take in a greater variety of parties and interests; you make it less probable that a majority of the whole will have a common motive to invade the rights of other citizens".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/The+Federalist+Papers#TheFederalistPapers-10 |title=Full Text of The Federalist Papers |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=March 25, 2022}}</ref>

 

 

The most forceful defense of the new Constitution was ''[[The Federalist Papers]]'', a compilation of 85 anonymous essays published in New York City to convince the people of the state to vote for ratification. These articles, written by [[Alexander Hamilton]] and [[James Madison]], with some contributed by [[John Jay]], examined the benefits of the new, proposed Constitution, and analyzed the political theory and function behind the various articles of the Constitution. ''The Federalist Papers'' remain one of the most important sets of documents in American history and political science.<ref name="Citycyclopedia">Jackson, Kenneth T. ''The Encyclopedia of New York City'': The New York Historical Society; Yale University Press; 1995. p. 194.</ref>

 

The Anti-Federalist critique soon centered on the absence of a [[bill of rights]], which Federalists in the ratifying conventions promised to provide. Washington and Madison had personally pledged to consider amendments, realizing that they would be necessary to reduce pressure for a second constitutional convention that might drastically alter and weaken the new federal government. Madison proposed amendments that gave more rights to individuals than to states, which led to criticisms of diversion by Anti-Federalists.<ref name=":2" />

 

In 1789, Congress submitted twelve articles of amendment to the states. Ten of these articles, written by congressional committees, achieved passage on December 15, 1791 and became the [[United States Bill of Rights]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=|first=|last2=|first2=|last3=|first3=|last4=|first4=|date=|title=Demand for a Bill of Rights - Creating the United States {{!}} Exhibitions - Library of Congress|url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/creating-the-united-states/demand-for-a-bill-of-rights.html|access-date=2021-01-11|website=www.loc.gov|publisher=Library of Congress}}</ref> The [[Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Tenth Amendment]] set the guidelines for federalism in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Tenth Amendment|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/tenth_amendment|access-date=2021-01-11|website=LII / Legal Information Institute|language=en}}</ref>

As early as 1913, there was talk of regulating stock exchanges, and the Capital Issues Committee formed to control access to credit during World War I recommended federal regulation of all stock issues and exchanges shortly before it ceased operating in 1921. With the [[Morrill Land-Grant Acts]] Congress used land sale revenues to make grants to the states for colleges during the Civil War on the theory that land sale revenues could be devoted to subjects beyond those listed in [[Article One of the United States Constitution#Section 8: Powers of Congress|Article I, Section 8]] of the Constitution. On several occasions during the 1880s, one house of Congress or the other passed bills providing land sale revenues to the states for the purpose of aiding primary schools. During the first years of the twentieth century, the endeavors funded with federal grants multiplied, and Congress began using general revenues to fund them—thus utilizing the [[general welfare clause]]'s broad spending power, even though it had been discredited for almost a century (Hamilton's view that a broad spending power could be derived from the clause had been all but abandoned by 1840).

 

 

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The national government was forced to cooperate with all levels of government to implement the New Deal policies; local government earned an equal standing with the other layers, as the federal government relied on [[political machine]]s at a city level to bypass [[State legislature (United States)|state legislatures]]. The formerly distinct division of responsibilities between state and national government had been described as a "layer cake," but, with the lines of duty blurred, cooperative federalism was likened to a "marble cake" or a "picket fence." In cooperative federalism, federal funds are distributed through [[grants in aid]] or [[categorical grant]]s which gave the federal government more control over the use of the money.

 

{{main|New Federalism}}

Another movement calling itself "New Federalism" appeared in the late 20th century and early 21st century. Many of the ideas of New Federalism originated with [[Richard Nixon]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Katz|first=Bruce|date=2014-08-11|title=Nixon's New Federalism 45 Years Later|url=https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2014/08/11/nixons-new-federalism-45-years-later/|access-date=2021-08-29|website=Brookings|language=en-US}}</ref> New Federalism, which is characterized by a gradual return of power to the states, was initiated by President [[Ronald Reagan]] (1981–89) with his "devolution revolution" in the early 1980s and lasted until 2001. Previously, the federal government had granted money to the states categorically, limiting the states to use this funding for specific programs. Reagan's administration, however, introduced a practice of giving block grants, freeing state governments to spend the money at their own discretion. An example and the first case of this was ''[[Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority]]'' (SAMTA) (1985). Garcia was a worker for SAMTA and appealed that because SAMTA received federal money, that they had to abide by federal labor regulations. SAMTA argued that they did not because the money received was to be used at their own discretion and did not need to abide by federal statutes because they are locally operated and make decisions about the transit system. This gave more autonomy and power to the states by allowing them to use more discretion, not having to abide by federal regulations.

 

 

A modern-day application of this rule can be found in ''[[Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association]]'' (2018). New Jersey’s governor attacked the federal government's prohibition on sports gambling. The courts again used the anti-commandeering principle, allowing states to regulate sports gambling at their discretion. This is starting to become a trend because now states are passing laws on issues that are often federally prohibited or heavily regulated by Congress under the commerce clause, as in the areas of medical marijuana (''[[Gonzales v. Raich]]''), [[partial-birth abortion]] (''[[Gonzales v. Carhart]]''), gun possession (''[[United States v. Lopez]]''), federal police powers (''[[United States v. Morrison]]'', which struck down portions of the [[Violence Against Women Act]]), or agriculture (''[[Wickard v. Filburn]]'').

 

==Notes==

{{Reflist}}

 

* {{Citation |last=Taylor |first=Jeff |author-link=Jeff Taylor (politician) |title=Politics on a Human Scale: The American Tradition of Decentralism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uVwrAQAAQBAJ |year=2013 |place=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=[[Lexington Books]] |isbn=978-0-7391-8674-9 }}

* [[U.S. Constitution]]

 

{{United States topics}}