Commandeering Under the Treaty Power
NOTES COMMANDEERING UNDER THE TREATY POWER JANET R. CARTER* In this Note, Janet Carter argues that the anticommandeeringprinciple announced in Printz v. United States should not constrain congressional implementation of treaty obligations. The Printz Court struck the balance between federal goals and states' rights knowing that Congress had alternative means of achieving its ends: the spending power and the threat of conditionalpreemption. Carter argues that those alternative means are largely unavailable,or at least less likely to work, when Congress is seeking to implement a treaty obligation. Therefore, the Printz Court's federal/state compromise will weigh too heavily againstfederal interests if applied to treaty-implementingprograms, suggesting that an absolute prohibitionon federal commandeeringpursuant to the treaty power is inappropriate. INTRODUCTION The powers of Congress, limited to those enumerated in the Con- stitution, are constrained further by the Tenth Amendment' and the general principles of federalism it embodies.2 However, in Missouri v. Holland,3 the Supreme Court held that federalism does not constrain * I would like to thank Professor Christopher Eisgruber for his generous guidance and advice, and Professors Barry Friedman and David Golove for their helpful comments. Thanks also to my wonderful editor Maggie Lemos, and to Paul Hayes, Alex Reid, Sally Kesh, and David Karp. 1 U.S. Const. amend. X ("The powers not delegated to the United States by the Con- stitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."). 2 According to current Supreme Court jurisprudence, that is. See Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997) (holding that federal government may not commandeer state executive); New York v.
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