Roger Williams University Law Review Volume 4 | Issue 1 Article 3 Fall 1998 The Relevance of Federal Norms for State Separation of Powers Michael C. Dorf Columbia University Follow this and additional works at: http://docs.rwu.edu/rwu_LR Recommended Citation Dorf, Michael C. (1998) "The Relevance of Federal Norms for State Separation of Powers," Roger Williams University Law Review: Vol. 4: Iss. 1, Article 3. Available at: http://docs.rwu.edu/rwu_LR/vol4/iss1/3 This Symposia is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at DOCS@RWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Roger Williams University Law Review by an authorized administrator of DOCS@RWU. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Relevance of Federal Norms for State Separation of Powers Michael C. Dorf* INTRODUCTION Of the American Constitution's three most distinctive fea- tures-federalism, judicial protection of individual rights and sep- aration of powers'-only the last has been held inapplicable to the states. First, federalism is, by its terms, a doctrine of power-shar- ing between the national and state governments. The distribution of authority between nation and states was the chief point of con- tention during the period of the Constitution's framing and ratifi- cation, and in recent years, the United States Supreme Court has vigorously enforced federalism norms. 2 Second, although the origi- nal Constitution contained relatively few individual rights provi- sions applicable to the states,3 during the last half-century, the Supreme Court has interpreted the Due Process and Equal Protec- tion Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendments as providing exten- sive protection for individual rights against state interference.