Preemption Strike

The Supreme Court has declared open season on American manufacturers.

Commerce, Competition, and the Court: An Agenda for a Constitutional Revival

The full extent of the contemporary Court's dereliction at the structure front appears in sharpest relief against the purest structure court in American history: the Court of the Gilded Age.

If We Are Going to Do It, Do It Right

The government should not go crazy in bailing out the states.

If We're Gonna Do It, Do It Right

The government should not go crazy in bailing out the states.

As Arizona Goes, So Goes the Nation

Medicaid's perverse incentives have led the states into a fiscal danger zone. In some states, the crisis has already arrived: Arizona provides a stark illustration of Medicaid's ruinous effects.

Business, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution

The Justice Department should contribute to reorientating the Supreme Court to a constitutional outlook.

Does the Court Mean Business?

The Roberts Court's business cases suggest that it is finally stepping away from the culture wars and returning to the nuts and bolts of law.

What Does DOJ Need Now?

Five experienced observers offer advice to the next attorney general.

Federal Preemption: Principles and Politics

Do broad federal preemption claims interfere with the states' police power to protect their citizens against corporate misconduct?

How to Pay the Piper

Congressional salaries must be uncoupled from those of their judicial and executive counterparts.

Interstate Comity

May Texas courts decide antitrust cases over allegedly anticompetitive conduct that, unfortunately, occurred wholly outside of Texas?

Germany's Bad Example for Iraq

Iraq should follow the constitutional structure of governance of the United States rather than employing proportional representation and cooperative federalism, both of which lead to instability.

Germany's Bad Example for Iraq

Germany's inconclusive election results and the impending constitutional referendum in Iraq point to some identical obstacles to effective and constitutional government.

The German Problem

On September 18, the Germans will go to the polls. Responsible politicians should urgently strive forconstitutional reform that will allow Germany to be governed.

How to Think about Constitutional Change, Part II

While progressives peddle a moribund, European social model, originalist pragmatism takes its bearings from the constitutional architecture.

Federal Consent Decree Fairness Act (S. 489)

The sensible course of action in the face of uncertainty is to enact the Federal Consent Decree Fairness Act and to monitor its outcomes.

How to Think about Constitutional Change, Part I

This Federalist Outlookdiscusses the liberal constitutional project.

Government by Indictment

This working paper provides a critical analysis of national policymaking by state attorneys general.

Liberals in Exile

Liberal interest groups and intellectuals decry a conservative return to a pre-Lochner U.S. Constitution, even as they try to reshape the Constitution to align with European thought.

Liberals in Exile

The laughable warning of an impending return to a reactionary "Constitution in Exile"serves to distract from the liberals' own agenda, which is not at all laughable.

Three-Piece Suits and Black Robes

Business should get serious about judicial appointments.

Liability Reform

Corporate America's impressive display of unanimity and muscle represents a splendid oppportunity to unclog the arteries of commerce.

The Justices at Home Abroad

The theme of the Supreme Court's 2003-2004 term is jurisdiction--the allocation of decision-making authority and letting the federal courts judge conflicts between laws of sovereigns.

Foreign Headaches

In tworecent cases, the U.S. Supreme Court addressed jurisdictional dimensions in international antitrust disputes, butonly one justice--Stephen Breyer--took a sensible view.

Same-Sex Marriage

The question of same-sex marriage ought to be committed to the states--by means of a constitutional amendment.

When States Screech, Don't Listen

Having barely recovered from the 2001-2002 budget crisis, states have discovered another "crisis"--reduced payments under the 1998 agreement with major tobacco manufacturers.

Subprime, but not Half-Bad

Activists view state predatory lending laws as a template for aggressive federal intervention. Industries are looking to the federal government to choke off state and local experimentation.

The Term the Constitution Died

An assessment of the Supreme Court's astounding 2002-2003 term.

The Court Decides Anything Goes

States, Corporations, and Citizens

Michael Greve's comments delivered at the Federalism Projects Supreme Court End of Term event.

A Conservative View of the Court

The GOP can still make a commitment to democratic self-government, as against the Democrats' wrongheaded centralization of power.

Viewing the Bench

Despite a few narrow victories, the administration is faring poorly in the war of attrition over its judicial nominees.

Eulogy for a Lost Clause

The State Farm dissenters deny that extraterritorial state court jurisdiction is a constitutional problem.

What Goes Up May Not Go Down

State revenue growth appears to be a driving force behind Medicaid growth.

Washington and the States

State and federal functions should be segregated; this is especially critical for Medicaid and education.

Choice and the Constitution

California Franchise Tax Board v. Hyatt illustrates the distressing level of mutual state exploitationcaused by the Supreme Court's lack of a coherent theory on state relations.

Narrowing the Nation's Power by John Noonan

Saving Toad Strains Interstate Commerce Powers

Commerce and the Constitution

Protecting federalism and the national economy against state parochialism and exploitation should be priorities for the nation and the Supreme Court.

National Class Actions Meet the High Court's Federalism

Reviewing Tort Law

State tort law, not legislation, now produces the most serious impositions on interstate commerce and on sister states.

States' Rights on Steroids

State attorneys general have discovered a new target for a coordinated litigation campaign: the pharmaceutical industry.

The Supreme Court Term That Was and the One That Will Be

Judging by the past term, the Supreme Court believes strongly in federalism, but the issue most in need of revision is the federal preemption of state law, especially tort law.

Business, the States, and Federalism's Political Economy

Our Parallel Government

Michael Greve remarks from 6/18/2002 "The New Pharmaceutical Litigation" event with Jack Calfee.

Reform Free-for-All

Free Eliot Spitzer!

Free New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer from federal interference--while limiting his authority to the state that elected him.

Compacts and Collusion

The otherwise sensible Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has sustained the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement on tobacco litigation against an attack under the Constitution's compact clause.

Citizens and Consumers

New Insights from the Old Continent

The United States should adopt mutual recognition among states as a central principle of federalism and regulatory policy.

Federalism on the Bench

The war against terror should remind us of the need to focus the national government on its constitutional obligations and to forsake local distractions, trivial pursuits, and interest-group concerns.

A Post-Sept. 11 Agenda

America'smost distressing problem is the administration’s failure to define America’s national interests in the war against terrorism with clarity andresolve.

Washington Goes to War

Conservatives should resist the tendency to characterize serious wartime measures as just another big-government charade.

National Power, Post-9/11

Terrorist cells on American soil are not simply another irritant on top of suburban sprawl and second-hand smoke.

Federalism Values and Foreign Relations

E-Taxes

It is possible to harmonize the contending principles of federalism, economic efficiency, and tax equity—by taxing all sales, through whatever channel, at their source.

Federalism, Yes. Activism, No.

Attacks on the Court’s "activist" federalism decisions provide occasion to examine the impact of the justices’ sea-changing, but widely underestimated, statutory decisions on federalism.

Federalism, Yes. Activism, No.

Renewed attacks on the Court’s "activist" federalism decisions provide occasion to examine the impact of the justices’ statutory decisions on federalism.

School Reform Yields to Politics

Education bills are still widely touted as a comprehensive reform effort, but they are simply a bipartisan commitment to education business as usual--at a sharply higher level of spending.

The End of Education Reform

Conservatives were reluctant to trigger a public spat over education with a new administration, buttheir failure to offer criticism and insist on choice was a mistake.

Affirmative Action Is on the Rocks, Thanks to College Leaders

Racial diversity is achievable under race-neutral norms, yet education administrators want to do something out of the ordinary for minority constituencies.

Laboratories of Democracy

Brandeis’s metaphor of the states as "laboratories" for policy experiments is clichéd, but thisdictum had everything to do with his commitment to scientific socialism.

Big Government Federalism

German experts hold cooperative federalism responsible for a loss of political transparency, civic discontent, and the country’s difficulties in adjusting to the demands of a modern global economy.

Conservatives Should Stop Getting Bogged Down in "States' Rights"

The demagogic nature of the allegations against Norton and Ashcroft should not blind conservatives to the fact that something is wrong with their accustomed states' rights defense of federalism.

The Real Division in the Court

Bush v. Gore presents no inversion of the federalist positions of conservative and liberal justices.

The Real Division in the Court

Federalism after the Election

How did the bitter presidential election of 2000 affect federalism?

Opportunity Rings

Cooperation Does Not Work

Cooperative federalism, which American federalism is in practice,is a terrible idea, regardless of the terms of cooperation.

The Supreme Court's Federalism

The five moderate-conservative Supreme Court justices who provide reliable votes for federalism comprehend their central role in restoring federalism—for the most part.

Collision Court

Corporate defendants won a narrow 5-4 victory when the Supreme Court found federal preemption of state tort law in Geier v. American Honda Motor Co.

The AEI Federalism Project

TheFederalism Project makes the case for constitutional, competitive federalism—a federalism that limits federal powers and compels the states to compete for citizens’ talents, assets, and affections.

Yes, Tax the Net

Greve on the debate over whether to tax the Internet.

Federal Cases

The Court and Its Key Project

Over the last five years, renewing federalism has been the Supreme Court's key project.

Federalism Is More than States’ Rights

Supreme Court must undertake the more important work of enforcing the Constitution’s explicit limits on the national government.