“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The Constitution lists powers it grants to the federal government, reserving the rest in the states and the people. Over the last few decades, some federal powers—particularly those embodied in the Commerce Clause, Taxation Clause, Necessary and Proper Clause, and...
These days, it is common to hear people criticize government on the basis that it “can’t get anything done.” Partisan gridlock is often raised as a culprit, and it is almost universally condemned by all sides. But the founders valued partisan gridlock as a roadblock...
The inadequacy of the Articles of Confederation as a governing charter induced the delegates at the federal convention to look for other models. The perils of extreme decentralization, coupled with the understandable influence of British precedents, help explain why...
A recent article in the New York Times covered the growth of state-level resistance to a future national health care plan. For example, in 2010, voters in Arizona will have a chance to approve a state constitutional amendment that would effectively ban national health...