A Stitch in Haste

A Stitch in Haste recommends the following report from the Congressional Research Service:

The lines of authority between states and the federal government are, to a significant extent, defined by the United States Constitution and relevant case law. In recent years, however, the Supreme Court has decided a number of cases that would seem to reevaluate this historical relationship. This report discusses state and federal legislative power generally, focusing on a number of these “federalism” cases.

The report (PDF – 29 pages) covers the Commerce Clause, Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Tenth Amendment, the Eleventh Amendment and the Spending Clause. These areas of constitutional law, especially the first and last, are among the most contentious in federal-state relations (and, one might note, in judicial confirmation hearings). The report summarizes the major cases in each area; the Commerce Clause section is particularly well-written.

It’s interesting to read a discussion of Commerce Clause jurisprudence followed by a discussion of Spending Clause jurisprudence. In both, an obscene expansion of federal power is rationalized by giving ordinary words, laypersons’ words, their exact opposite meaning: interstate means intrastate, commerce means non-commerce, general means specific, welfare means deprivation. All because activist legislators, motivated at best by hubris and at worst by power-lust, enabled by jurisprudential eunuchs who insist that refusing to do one’s job can somehow be a noble pursuit, had what they thought at the time was too good an idea to be blocked by pesky constitutional considerations.

Previous CRS Recommendations:
Political Activity by Tax-Exempt Institutions
The Law of Church and State
Constitutional Limits on Hate Crime Legislation
Same-Sex Marriage — Legal Issues
Saudi Arabia
The National Debt
Restricting Video Game Sales to Minors
Warrantless Wiretapping
Foreign Holdings of Public Debt
China’s Internet Censorship
Summary of Rumsfeld v. FAIR