American Democracy in Context. Joseph A. Pika
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insurance coverage for low-income individuals. As of 2018, 35 states plus the District of Columbia had expanded Medicaid, but 14 had not.51
Similar disputes arose over another Obama administration policy, the Clean Power Plan, which required states to submit plans for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Under the policy, states that failed to develop their own plan would be compelled to comply with a plan imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In 2016, the Supreme Court, by a 5–4 vote, ordered the EPA to halt enforcement of the plan until a lower federal court had ruled on it. Before the lower court had an opportunity to do so, President Trump, who took office in January 2017, began efforts to scrap the Clean Air Plan, paving the way for litigation from progressive states and environmental groups who argued that Trump’s alternative rules fall short of EPA standards mandated by the Clean Power Plan.52
With Trump as president, progressives and even some Republicans began to embrace other aspects of states’ rights to counter Trump administration policies. This included the use of sanctuary cities discussed at the beginning of the chapter as well as opposition to President Trump’s plan to allow oil and gas drilling off of most of the nation’s coastline. Coastal states quickly proposed legislation to enact local bans on such drilling, paving the way for legal confrontations between states and the federal government.53 Similar opposition arose in some quarters to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s January 2018 decision to rescind the Obama-era policy that the Justice Department not prosecute marijuana-related offenses under the federal Controlled Substances Act in states that had legalized the use of marijuana in some form. Despite the Attorney General’s move, President Trump indicated that he might be willing to sign bipartisan legislation allowing states to determine their own marijuana policies. By June 2019, 11 states plus the District of Columbia had legalized the recreational use of marijuana for adults over the age of 21, while an additional 22 states have legalized marijuana for medical use (see Figure 3.4).54 Still, the threat remained that the government could enforce the Controlled Substances Act through federal prosecutions for such use. In 2018, Canada became the first major world economy to fully decriminalize the sale and possession of marijuana for recreational use (the medicinal use of marijuana had been legal there since 2001).55
Figure 3.4 Marijuana Legalization as of June 2019
Source: Dan Bilefsky, “Legalizing Recreational Marijuana, Canada Begins a National Experiment,” The New York Times, October 17, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/world/canada/marijuana-pot-cannabis-legalization.html
Consequences for Democracy
Most people do not initially think that federalism will be the most engaging topic they will cover when studying American government. They may even think of it as boring, but first impressions can be deceiving. After all, federalism was one of the most contentious issues, if not the most contentious issue, from the Constitutional Convention through most of the 1800s. Debates about national supremacy versus states’ rights permeated the Constitutional Convention, influenced the development of our political parties, led to the Civil War, and shaped subsequent civil rights policies.
Those debates have never gone away. They were at the forefront of whether Congress, during the Progressive Era of the 1890s to the 1920s, could pass legislation protecting employees in the workplace through laws regulating things such as minimum wages, child labor, and maximum hours. Embracing dual federalism, the Supreme Court mostly said no.
As the United States struggled to emerge from the depths of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the debate turned to whether the New Deal legislation implemented by President Franklin Roosevelt and his fellow Democrats in Congress was constitutional. Until 1936, the answer was, again, mostly no. That changed with the “switch in time” in 1937. That switch not only meant that New Deal legislation designed to regulate the economy was upheld but also that workplace regulations that had been routinely struck down for decades were now deemed constitutional.
Today, many of the most controversial aspects of federalism deal with social issues such as same-sex marriage, gun control, health care reform, education, immigration, and the legalization of marijuana. Far from being uninteresting, we believe that federalism—throughout our history—has involved some of the most fascinating and relevant issues one can imagine. Certainly, these policies relate to you on a daily basis: what you studied in high school, who you can marry, at what age you can drink alcohol, how fast you can drive, whether or not there is a minimum wage, and whether you can be discriminated against in a hotel because of your race, to name only a few. Just as profoundly, federalism will shape your future. After all, things such as Social Security and Medicare would not have been possible without the “switch in time.” Think about that the next time someone says that federalism is boring or unimportant. In fact, few aspects of our governmental system have a greater impact on your daily life.
Critical Thinking Questions
1 As you follow current events, ask yourself: How do perspectives on federalism influence what policies can be implemented concerning those issues?
2 One’s decision about whether to support states’ rights or national supremacy sometimes varies according to the policy issue in question. For example, some conservatives who otherwise support states’ rights balk at the idea of allowing states to recognize same-sex marriage or approve the use of marijuana. Can such discrepancies be reconciled?
3 Think back to the opening vignette of this chapter. What are the pros and cons of sanctuary cities? How do the actions of sanctuary jurisdictions illustrate federalism in action?
4 Did the framers make the right choice when they created a federal system in this country? Did the Supreme Court make the right choice with its “switch in time” in 1937?
Key Terms
block grants, 69
categorical grants, 69
commerce clause, 63
concurrent powers, 59
confederal system, 55
cooperative federalism, 62
dual federalism, 61
extradition clause, 60
federal system, 55
full faith and credit clause, 60
interstate compacts, 60
necessary and proper (elastic) clause, 58
nullification, 64
police powers, 58
privileges and immunities clause, 60
reserved powers, 58
secession, 65
supremacy clause, 58
Tenth Amendment, 58
unfunded mandate, 69
unitary system, 55
Descriptions of Images and Figures
Back to Figure
The details are as follows.
Unitary system:A central government with arrows pointing to several state/local governmentsThe central government is sovereign, with no legal superior. It may create state governments and delegate legal authority to them. It can also eliminate such governments.
Confederal system:A central government which receives arrows pointing from various several