Some Intersections of the Negative Commerce Clause and the New Federalism

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Some Intersections of the Negative Commerce Clause and the New Federalism Vanderbilt Law Review Volume 31 Issue 3 Issue 3 - April 1978 Article 1 4-1978 Some Intersections of the Negative Commerce Clause and the New Federalism James F. Blumstein Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr Part of the Constitutional Law Commons Recommended Citation James F. Blumstein, Some Intersections of the Negative Commerce Clause and the New Federalism, 31 Vanderbilt Law Review 473 (1978) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol31/iss3/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vanderbilt Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW VOLUME 31 APRIL 1978 NUMBER 3 Some Intersections of the Negative Commerce Clause and the New Federalism: The Case of Discriminatory State Income Tax Treatment of Out-of-State Tax- Exempt Bonds* James F. Blumstein** TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ................................ 474 II. NEGATmE CO MMRCE CLAUSE CASES: THE ROLE OF THE COURT ................................... 490 III. NEGATIVE COMMERCE CLAUSE CASES: AN ANALYTICAL FRAMiEWORK .................................. 497 A. Legislative Purpose ........................ 497 B. The Extent of the Burden on Commerce ....... 498 C. The Nature of the Subject Matter Regulated (Herein of the Need for Uniformity) ......... 500 ' I would like to acknowledge the contribution of Ms. Susan E. Dominick, a member of the Bar of the State of Alabama. Initially, she and I were planning to write this Article jointly, but the press of her practice precluded that. Portions of the Article, however, reflect her direct input, for which I express my appreciation. I would also like to express my gratitude to Messrs. James S. Hutchinson, David L. Jordan, George C. Lamb III, and Joel R. Tew of the Vanderbilt Law School class of 1979 for their able and diligent assistance in the assiduous task of preparing the footnotes for this Article. Finally, I would like to thank Kevin J. Wolff, Editor in Chief of the Law Review, for his constructive blend of patience and persistence during the preparation of this Article and his acumen in the editorial process. Work on portions of this article was supported by the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies. "Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School; Senior Research Associate, Vanderbilt Insti- tute for Public Policy Studies. B.A., Yale College, 1966; M.A., Yale University, 1970; LL.B., Yale Law School, 1970. VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW [Vol. 31:473 D. The Nature of the Effect on Commerce (Here- in of Discrimination) ...................... 501 (1) Regulation Cases ...................... 503 (2) Taxation Cases ....................... 508 IV. JUDICIAL INTERVENTIONISM IN DIFFERING CONTEXTS: COMPARING THE COURT'S APPROACH IN NEGATIVE COMMERCE CLAUSE AND EQUAL PROTECTION CASES .. 518 V. THE NEW FEDERALISM........................... 524 A. The Usery Case ........................... 525 B. The Hughes Case .......................... 533 VI. DISCRIMINATORY STATE INCOME TAXATION OF OUT-oF- STATE TAX-EXEMPT BONDS ..................... 542 A. The Problem .............................. 542 B. PriorNon-Commerce Clause Case Law ....... 547 C. The Commerce Clause Analysis .............. 559 D. The Impact of the New Federalism ........... 565 VII. CONCLUSION .................................. 572 I. INTRODUCTION Much has been written about the change in the Supreme Court's judicial philosophy, as a new, ascendant majority2 has been able successfully to implement its emerging notions of judicial reti- cence and self-abnegation.3 This fundamental turnabout in judicial perspective is hardly coincidental, since it reflects the fulfillment of an oft-repeated campaign pledge of Richard Nixon, who in 1968 promised, if elected, to appoint so-called strict constructionists to 1. See, e.g., Fiss, Dombrowski, 86 YAr L.J. 1103 (1977); Gunther, Supreme Court 1971 Term, Foreword:In Search of Evolving Doctrineon a Changing Court:A Model for a Newer Equal Protection, 86 HARv. L. Rav. 1 (1972); Michelman, States' Rights and States' Roles: Permutations of "Sovereignty" in National League of Cities v. Usery, 86 YMz L.J. 1165 (1977); Swindler, The Court, the Constitution, and Chief Justice Burger, 27 VAND. L. REv. 443 (1974); Tribe, UnravelingNational League of Cities: The New Federalism and Affirma- tive Rights to Essential Government Services, 90 HARv. L. Ray. 1065 (1977). 2. With regard to the ideological composition of the Court, Chief Justice Burger and Justice Rehnquist seem to represent one wing of the Court while Justices Brennan and Marshall represent another. The remaining Justices stand somewhere in between. The voting patterns of the Justices evidence this composition. During the 1976-77 term, for example, while Chief Justice Burger and Justice Rehnquist agreed in 78.4% of the decisions in which both took part, Chief Justice Burger agreed with Justices Brennan and Marshall only 36.9% and 37.4% of the time respectively. Similar differences occurred between Justice Rehnquist and Justices Brennan and Marshall. See The Supreme Court, 1976 Term, 91 HA.v. L. REv. 72, 296 (1977). On many specific issues, however, it seems that the Burger-Rehnquist position has prevailed. See, eg., National League of Cities v. Usery, 426 U.S. 833 (1976); Paul v. Davis, 424 U.S. 693 (1976); Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973). 3. See, e.g., Yarbrough, Litigant Access Doctrine and the Burger Court, 31 VnD. L. REV. 33 (1978). 1978] NEGATIVE COMMERCE CLAUSE the Court.' In a basic way his appointees have succeeded in modify- ing the activist stance that prevailed on the Court during much of the tenure of Earl Warren as Chief Justice. With notable exceptions in some areas,5 the new majority has a much more modest view of the judicial function within our democratic society.' Elements of 4. In October 1968 Mr. Nixon expressed the opinion that Supreme Court Justices had "gone too far" by injecting "social and economic ideas" into their opinions, and he promised to appoint Justices who would "interpret the Constitution strictly and fairly" instead of writing the law. N.Y. Times, Oct. 4, 1968, at 50, col. 2. 5. The primary exceptions are the abortion cases. Carey v. Population Servs. Int'l, 431 U.S. 678 (1977) (striking down numerous state restrictions on the sales, the advertising of, and the right to purchase contraceptives); Planned Parenthood v. Danforth, 428 U.S. 52 (1976) (striking down a state statute requiring parent's or husband's consent before an abor- tion may be performed); Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179 (1973) (striking down a state statute prohibiting abortion except in narrowly defined medical circumstances and requiring proce- dural conditions beyond the mere approval of the attending physician); Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 160 (1973) (although admitting there was a "wide divergence of thinking on this most sensitive and difficult question," the Court struck down a state statute prohibiting nontherapeutic abortions). But see Poelker v. Doe, 432 U.S. 519 (1977) (per curiam); Maher v. Roe, 432 U.S. 464 (1977) (equal protection clause allows a state participating in the medi- caid program to pay for childbirth expenses of indigent women and not for nontherapeutic abortions). Furthermore, in the environmental area Justice Blackmun has been willing to adopt a more interventionist approach. See Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 757 (1972) (Blackmun, J., dissenting) CI would permit an imaginative expansion of our traditional concepts of standing in order to enable an organization such as [plaintiff] possessed, as it is, of pertinent, bona fide, and well-recognized attributes and purposes in the area of envi- ronment, to litigate environmental issues."). Compare United States v. SCRAP, 412 U.S. 669 (1973) (association has standing to challenge the ICC's failure to suspend a temporary sur- charge on railroad freight rates; plaintiffs alleged the surcharge would indirectly damage the natural environment they enjoyed) with Simon v. Eastern Ky. Welfare Rights Org., 426 U.S. 26 (1976) (barring standing to a group challenging Treasury regulations that grant favorable tax treatment to nonprofit hospitals, even though they do not provide significant non- emergency medical care to indigents). See also Duke Power Co. v. Carolina Environmental Study Group, Inc., 98 S. Ct. 2620 (1978). 6. See generally A. BicKaL, THE LEAsTDANGEROUS BRANcu (1962); Bickel, The Supreme Court, 1960 Term, Foreword: The Passive Virtues, 75 Hnv. L. Rav. 40 (1961); see also Wright, ProfessorBickel, the Scholarly Tradition,and the Supreme Court, 84 HARv. L. Rv. 769 (1971). This view has been articulated well in recent decisions that contract the concept of standing. See notes 298 & 324 infra. Pursuing JusticelHarlan's suggestion in dissent in Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 116 (1968), Justice Powell's concurrence in United States v. Richard- son, 418 U.S. 166, 188 (1974), sets a tone of judicial modesty: Relaxation of standing requirements is directly related to the expansion of judicial power. It seems to me inescapable that allowing unrestricted taxpayer or citizen stand- ing would significantly alter the allocation of power at the national level, with a shift away from a democratic form of government. I also believe that repeated and essentially head.on confrontations between the life-tenured branch and the representative branches of government will
Recommended publications
  • Devolution/New Federalism About Devolution
    Devolution/New Federalism About Devolution Devolution, also known as New Federalism, is the transfer of certain powers from the United States federal government back to the states. It started under Ronald Reagan over concerns that the federal government had too much power (as is seen during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” program and Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” program). Reagan Revolution (1981-1989) ● “New Federalism” evolved after the election of Republican President Ronald Reagan, in which he promised to return power to the states in an effort to even out the balance of strength between the national and state governments. ● Replaced the general revenue sharing with block grants as the primary funding for states. ● Introduced his Economic Policy Goals: Reaganomics, which focused on federal spending, taxation, regulation, and inflation. ● These economic reliefs gave more power to the states by lessening their reliance on the federal government. Bill Clinton’s Presidency (1993-2001) ● Bill Clinton was the first Democratic president in 12 years. Despite this, Clinton largely campaigned against a strong federal government due to the large Republican house majority during his presidency and Newt Gingrich’s priority of “New Federalism.” ● Passed the Unfunded Mandates Act of 1995 gave states a larger say in federal spendings. ● Passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Economic Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (later replaced by the TANF), which gave state governments control over welfare. Policies Block Grants - Prominent type of grant given to states by the federal government during and after the Reagan Administration. The federal government gives money to the state governments with only general provisions on how it is to be spent (“flexible funding”).
    [Show full text]
  • State Constitutional Law, New Judicial Federalism, and the Rehnquist Court
    Cleveland State Law Review Volume 51 Issue 3 Symposium: The Ohio Constitution - Article 4 Then and Now 2004 State Constitutional Law, New Judicial Federalism, and the Rehnquist Court Shirley S. Abrahamson Chief Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevstlrev Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the State and Local Government Law Commons How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Recommended Citation Shirley S. Abrahamson, State Constitutional Law, New Judicial Federalism, and the Rehnquist Court , 51 Clev. St. L. Rev. 339 (2004) available at https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevstlrev/vol51/iss3/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cleveland State Law Review by an authorized editor of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STATE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, NEW JUDICIAL FEDERALISM, AND THE REHNQUIST COURT SHIRLEY S. ABRAHAMSON1 Dean Steinglass, faculty, students, fellow panelists, guests. Ohio, as you all know, was admitted to the Union on March 1, 1803.2 It was the seventeenth state.3 The state is celebrating this 200th anniversary with a yearlong series of activities honoring the state’s rich history: bicentennial bells, historical markers, celebration of Ohio’s role in the birth and development of aviation and aerospace, Ohio’s Tall Ship Challenge, Tall Stacks on the Ohio River, and a bicentennial stamp. The Ohio legal system also celebrates the bicentennial. It celebrates in quiet contemplation of its state constitutional history.
    [Show full text]
  • Domestic Relations, Missouri V. Holland, and the New Federalism
    William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal Volume 12 (2003-2004) Issue 1 Article 5 December 2003 Domestic Relations, Missouri v. Holland, and the New Federalism Mark Strasser Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj Part of the Family Law Commons Repository Citation Mark Strasser, Domestic Relations, Missouri v. Holland, and the New Federalism, 12 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 179 (2003), https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj/vol12/iss1/5 Copyright c 2003 by the authors. This article is brought to you by the William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository. https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/wmborj DOMESTIC RELATIONS, MISSOURI v. HOLLAND, AND THE NEW FEDERALISM Mark Strasser* INTRODUCTION Over the past several years, the United States Supreme Court has been limiting Congress's power under the Commerce Clause and under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.' During this same period, the Court has emphasized the importance of state sovereignty and has expanded the constitutional protections afforded the states under the Tenth and Eleventh Amendments. 2 These developments notwithstanding, commentators seem confident that the treaty power is and will remain virtually plenary, even if the federal government might make use of it to severely undermine the dignity and sovereignty of the states.3 That confidence is misplaced. While it is difficult to predict what the Court would do were an appropriate opportunity to present itself, the doctrinal explanations that would be necessary to support a much less robust treaty power would be much easier to make than most commentators seem to realize, even if one brackets recent developments in constitutional law.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Federalism After United States Vs. Lopez - Introduction
    Case Western Reserve Law Review Volume 46 Issue 3 Article 4 1996 The New Federalism after United States vs. Lopez - Introduction Jonathan L. Entin Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/caselrev Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Jonathan L. Entin, The New Federalism after United States vs. Lopez - Introduction, 46 Case W. Rsrv. L. Rev. 635 (1996) Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/caselrev/vol46/iss3/4 This Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Case Western Reserve Law Review by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. INTRODUCTION JonathanL. Entin* Arguments about the proper role of the federal government have been a staple of American political life. That topic was at the core of the debate over ratification of the Constitution, and it re- mains a central issue in contemporary politics.' Although the argu- ments typically have a strong pragmatic aspect (e.g., whether pub- lic policy is made more effectively at the state or local level than at the national level), much of the debate explicitly invokes con- stitutional values. This is neither surprising nor inappropriate, be- cause the Constitution is more than "what the judges say it is." It also provides the framework for our government and our politics. In light of our "profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide- open,"3 we should expect our fundamental charter to figure in public discourse.
    [Show full text]
  • Block Grants: Perspectives and Controversies
    Block Grants: Perspectives and Controversies Updated February 21, 2020 Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov R40486 Block Grants: Perspectives and Controversies Summary Block grants provide state and local governments funding to assist them in addressing broad purposes, such as community development, social services, public health, or law enforcement, and generally provide them more control over the use of the funds than categorical grants. Block grant advocates argue that block grants increase government efficiency and program effectiveness by redistributing power and accountability through decentralization and partial devolution of decisionmaking authority from the federal government to state and local governments. Advocates also view them as a means to reduce the federal deficit. For example, the Trump Administration’s FY2020 budget request recommended that Medicaid be set “on a sound fiscal path ... by putting States on equal footing with the Federal Government to implement comprehensive Medicaid financing reform through a per capita cap or block grant.... [the proposal would] empower States to design State-based solutions that prioritize Medicaid dollars for the most vulnerable and support innovation.” The Trump Administration’s FY2021 budget request added that “Medicaid reform would restore balance, flexibility, integrity, and accountability to the State-Federal partnership.” Block grant critics argue that block grants can undermine the achievement of national objectives and can be used as a “backdoor” means to reduce government spending on domestic issues. For example, opponents of converting Medicaid into a block grant argue that “block granting Medicaid is simply code for deep, arbitrary cuts in support to the most vulnerable seniors, individuals with disabilities, and low-income children.” Block grant critics also argue that block grants’ decentralized nature makes it difficult to measure their performance and to hold state and local government officials accountable for their decisions.
    [Show full text]
  • Gonzales V. Raich: Has New Federalism Gone up in Smoke?
    CASENOTE Gonzales v. Raich: Has New Federalism Gone up in Smoke? In Gonzales v. Raich,1 the United States Supreme Court broke with recent federalist trends2 by holding that Congress did not exceed its Commerce Clause' power in prohibiting the local growth and use of marijuana, which was legal under California state law.4 While the Court asserted that this case did not break with recent precedent restricting Congress's Commerce Clause power,5 this decision reaffirms 1. 125 S. Ct. 2195 (2005). 2. The Court, in recent years, has struck two laws on federalist principles. United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995); Morrison v. United States, 529 U.S. 598 (2000). 3. The Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution provides that Congress has the power "[t]o regulate Commerce... among the several States....." U.S. CONST. art 1, § 8, cl. 3. 4. California's Compassionate Use Act of 1996 provides that its purpose is: To ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes where that medical use is deemed appropriate and has been recommended by a physician who has determined that the person's health would benefit from the use of marijuana in the treatment of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief. CAL. HEALTH & SAFE. CODE ANN. § 11362.5(b)(1)(A) (West Supp. 2005). 5. Gonzales, 125 S. Ct. at 2209-11. 1309 1310 MERCER LAW REVIEW [Vol. 57 expansive congressional power and creates uncertainty about whether federalist principles limit congressional power.
    [Show full text]
  • The Commerce Clause and Federalism After Lopez and Morrison: the Case for Closing the Jurisdictional-Element Loophole
    The Commerce Clause and Federalism after Lopez and Morrison: The Case for Closing the Jurisdictional-Element Loophole Diane McGimseyt TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................ 1677 I. Federalism: The Principle at Stake in Lopez and Morrison ........... 1682 II. How a State-Line Crossing Became Sufficient to Invoke the Commerce Clause Power ................................................................ 1685 A. Substantial-Effects Prong ......................................................... 1689 B. Regulation of the Channels and Instrumentalities of Interstate C omm erce ................................................................................. 1691 1. Instrumentalities of Interstate Commerce .......................... 1692 2. Channels of Interstate Commerce ...................................... 1696 3. The Jurisdictional Element ................................................. 1699 III. Lopez and Morrison: How the Apparent "Revolution" in Congress's Commerce Clause Power Left that Power Essentially Intact .......... 1701 IV. The Jurisdictional Element and Federalism: Why the Commerce Clause Still Needs Revisiting .......................................................... 1706 A. Implications of the Growth of the U.S. Economy .................... 1706 B. Lower Court Decisions ............................................................. 1710 1. Federal Carjacking Statute ................................................. 1710 2. Felon-in-Possession
    [Show full text]
  • The Elastic Commerce Clause: a Political Theory of American Federalism
    The Elastic Commerce Clause: A Political Theory of American Federalism William N. Eskridge, Jr.* John Ferejohn** INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 1355 I. JUDICIAL ENFORCEMENT OF FEDERALISM ......................... 1360 A. JudicialPreferences Based on Rule of Law, Political,and InstitutionalValues ........................ 1361 B. Democracy and Efficiency Norms .......................... 1362 C. A Model of Supreme CourtEnforcement of Federalism.......................................................... 1364 II. A BRIEF HISTORY OF FEDERALISM AT THE SUPREME COURT ......................................................... 1369 A. The Marshall Court, 1801-35 ................................ 1369 B. The Taney Court, 1836-65...................................... 1373 C. The Reconstruction Court, 1865-95 ....................... 1376 D. The Lochner Court, 1895-1937 .............................. 1380 E. The New Deal Court, 1937-86 ................................ 1385 F. The Reagan Court, 1986-?...................................... 1392 III. REVISITING OUR MODEL OF FEDERALISM LIMITS ON NATIONAL AND STATE REGULATION ................................... 1395 CONCLUSION: FEDERALISM AND THE COMMITMENT ISSUE 1398 INTRODUCTION Federalism is sometimes said to be an unstable halfway house between unified national government and an alliance among separate * Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center. ** Carolyn S. G. Munro Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford
    [Show full text]
  • Banks Blakeman WPSA
    Western Political Science Association 2017 New Federalism and the Culture Wars Chris Banks, Kent State University John C. Blakeman, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point New Federalism and the Culture Wars Partisan warfare on the national level increasingly has been a part of federalism theory and practice. From the instant that President Barack Obama signed his signature domestic accomplishment of Obamacare into law, Republicans in nearly thirty states opposed it by immediately filing lawsuits challenging its constitutionality on state sovereignty grounds (Bulman-Pozen 2014, 1078). That litigation strategy ultimately proved to be futile (Banks 2017). Even so, when the Republicans’ political fortunes reversed with repudiation of the Democratic party in the 2016 presidential and congressional elections, the nascent Trump administration similarly adopted states’ rights political rhetoric as the basis for taking policy initiatives to strengthen the nation’s borders (via executive orders) and Obama’s health care legacy (via a congressional action), only to be thwarted by litigation filed by opponents in seventeen different states and, notably, a divided Republican party that thus far has shown little capacity to govern effectively (Rose and Yesko 2017; Thrush and Haberman 2017; Editor 2017). The common denominator in both examples is the underlying rhetoric and application of new federalism politics, albeit with a slightly different twist. As a mainstay political argument, new federalism traditionally has been understood to resist federal overreach and centralization by making anti-New Deal claims to states’ rights and sovereignty that “promot[e] a free market system that relies heavily on individual incentive to solve social problems,” an approach taken by conservative administrations dating back to the Nixon presidency (Takahashi 2003, 261; Banks and Blakeman 2012, 51-52).
    [Show full text]
  • A Theory of Commerce-Clause Based Regulation of Traditionally State Crimes Harry Litman
    Case Western Reserve Law Review Volume 47 | Issue 3 1997 Federal Power and Federalism: A Theory of Commerce-Clause Based Regulation of Traditionally State Crimes Harry Litman Mark D. Greenberg Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/caselrev Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Harry Litman and Mark D. Greenberg, Federal Power and Federalism: A Theory of Commerce-Clause Based Regulation of Traditionally State Crimes, 47 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 921 (1997) Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/caselrev/vol47/iss3/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Case Western Reserve Law Review by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. FEDERAL POWER AND FEDERALISM: A THEORY OF COMMERCE-CLAUSE BASED REGULATION OF TRADITIONALLY STATE CRIMESt Harry Litmantt & Mark D. Greenbergt1 Perhaps no legal topic has generated more scholarly discussion in the last two years than the meaning of the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Lopez.! To many legal thinkers, the decision-the first since the New Deal to reject an attempted exer- cise of the commerce power-appeared to undermine long held assumptions about the commerce power, along with the validity of a wide range of criminal, social, and environmental statutes that rest on that power.2 Some commentators, grouping Lopez with the t This Article is adapted from an address presented at the Symposium, The New Federalism After United States v.
    [Show full text]
  • CRS Report for Congress Received Through the CRS Web
    Order Code RL30705 CRS Report for Congress Received through the CRS Web Federal Grants to State and Local Governments: A Brief History October 10, 2000 Ben Canada Analyst in American National Government Government and Finance Division Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress Federal Grants to State and Local Governments: A Brief History Summary The historical origins of the federal grants-in-aid system predate the Constitution. In fact, the federal government was making grants of land as early as 1785. There was, however, little development in the system until the 20th century. Certain conditions existed during the late 18th and 19th centuries that limited federal aid to states and localities. During the pre-Civil War era, proponents of states’ rights and minimalist national governnment prevailed. The post-Civil War era was one of corporate dominance and weak government. Despite these conditions, the federal government did provide aid to states and localities to address natural disasters, civil disturbances, westward expansion, and the need for internal improvements. The grants-in-aid system assumed its current form when President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated his New Deal programs. Since Roosevelt, the grants-in-aid system has expanded, especially in the number and dollar amount of categorical grant programs. The Nixon administration initiated changes in the system, signing block grants into law, as well as establishing general revenue sharing, a program which distributed funds to state and local governments with no programmatic strings. The Reagan Administration also pursued substantial change, consolidating dozens of categorical grants into broader block grants and slowing the growth of the grants-in- aid system.
    [Show full text]
  • Gonzales V. Raich: How to Fix a Mess of "Economic" Proportions Gregory W
    The University of Akron IdeaExchange@UAkron Akron Law Review Akron Law Journals July 2015 Gonzales v. Raich: How to Fix a Mess of "Economic" Proportions Gregory W. Watts Please take a moment to share how this work helps you through this survey. Your feedback will be important as we plan further development of our repository. Follow this and additional works at: http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the Second Amendment Commons Recommended Citation Watts, Gregory W. (2007) "Gonzales v. Raich: How to Fix a Mess of "Economic" Proportions," Akron Law Review: Vol. 40 : Iss. 3 , Article 5. Available at: http://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/akronlawreview/vol40/iss3/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Akron Law Journals at IdeaExchange@UAkron, the institutional repository of The nivU ersity of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. It has been accepted for inclusion in Akron Law Review by an authorized administrator of IdeaExchange@UAkron. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Watts: Gonzales v. Raich: An "Economic" Mess WATTS FINAL.DOCFINAL 4/23/2007 9:26:13 AM GONZALES V. RAICH: HOW TO FIX A MESS OF “ECONOMIC” PROPORTIONS I. INTRODUCTION From 1937 to 1994, the Supreme Court upheld every single application of Congress’s power that was challenged under the Commerce Clause.1 Then in 1995, for the first time in over fifty years the Court invalidated an act under the Commerce Clause, the Gun-Free School Zones Act,2 in United States v. Lopez.3 The Court followed up Lopez in 2000 by striking down part of the Violence Against Women Act4 in United States v.
    [Show full text]