Everything about New Federalism totally explained
New Federalism refers to the transfer of certain powers from the
United States federal government to the
U.S. states. The primary objective of New Federalism is the restoration to the states of some of the autonomy and power which they lost to the federal government as a consequence of
President Franklin Roosevelt's
New Deal.
It relies upon a
Federalist tradition dating back to the founding of the country, as well as the
Ninth Amendment and
Tenth Amendment.
As a policy theme, New Federalism typically involves the federal government providing
block grants to the states to resolve a social issue. The federal government then monitors outcomes but provides broad discretion to the states for how the programs are implemented. Advocates of this approach sometimes cite a quotation from a dissent by
Louis Brandeis in
New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann:
» It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.
From
1937 to
1995, the
Supreme Court of the United States didn't void a single Act of Congress for exceeding Congress's power under the
Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, instead holding that anything that could conceivably have even a slight impact on commerce was subject to federal regulation. It was thus seen as a (narrow) victory for federalism when the
Rehnquist Court reined in federal regulatory power in
United States v. Lopez (1995) and
United States v. Morrison (2000).
The Supreme Court wavered, however, in
Gonzalez v. Raich, holding that the federal government could outlaw the use of marijuana for medical purposes under the
Commerce Clause even if the marijuana was never bought or sold, and never crossed state lines. How broad a view of state autonomy the Court will take in future decisions remains unclear. (See
Gonzales v. Oregon)
Justice O'Connor, dissenting in Gonzalez (
transcript
), began her opinion by citing
United States v. Lopez, which she followed with a federalist reference to Justice
Louis Brandeis's dissenting opinion in
New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann.
Related legislation
Further Information
Get more info on 'New Federalism'.
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