AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Senior Fellows Mario Loyola and Richard Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at New York University, the Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law (emeritus) at the University of Chicago, co-author the lead article for National Affairs titled Saving Federalism that discusses the federal takeover of state governments.
"The Supreme Court has long insisted that the federal government cannot command states to do anything, but it has allowed the federal government to ‘encourage’ state obedience through ‘cooperative federalism’ programs,” writes Loyola, “A new symposium of progressive Yale law professors now admits what conservatives have been saying for years, that such programs have resulted in a federal takeover of the states. The Supreme Court will hopefully not take long to note that nobody on the right or left takes its federalism doctrines seriously anymore.
“Since the Civil War, the Supreme Court has opened the door to federal control of state governments where exclusive state jurisdiction was most vital, while substantially curtailing federal protection against state abuses where federal protection was most vital. By undermining the constitutional premises of their own cooperative federalism, these ‘National Federalists’ of the Yale Law School may have provided the tipping point that pushes the Supreme Court to revive its crucial role enforcing the boundary between state and federal authority within the checks and balances of our Constitution.”
The article can be read in its entirety here: http://bit.ly/1iqvagC.
To learn more from Mr. Loyola contact Kristen Indriago at [email protected] or 512.472.2700.
Mario Loyola is a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
Primary website: www.TexasPolicy.com
Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/TexasPublicPolicyFoundation
Twitter feed: www.Twitter.com/TPPF
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"Today the U.S. Supreme Court took a first step in rolling back the Environmental Protection Agency's plans to use the threat of climate change as a basis for an unprecedented regulatory power grab," said Kathleen Hartnett White, Distinguished Senior Fellow and Director of the Armstrong Center for Energy and the Environment at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. "But the decision still leaves EPA with the authority to impose severe burdens on major industry in Texas and the nation. Further action is necessary to prevent EPA from becoming the master of U.S. energy and hence the economy. Congress must reaffirm what should have always been obvious, that regulating CO2 as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act will necessarily lead to absurd results."
Kathleen Hartnett White is a Distinguished Senior Fellow and the Director for the Armstrong Center for Energy & the Environment. Former Chairman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (2001-2007).
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
Primary website: www.TexasPolicy.com
Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/TexasPublicPolicyFoundation
Twitter feed: www.Twitter.com/TPPF
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