*federalism Evaluate the view that federalism has been weakened in recent years (30)

Topic 1

Legislation

For 1

Necessary and proper clause, commerce clause-broad interpretation often used to expand fed gov authority

-US v Lopez 1995

-Obama DACA (president memoranda)

Against 1

-10th amendment US constitution gives state the reserved power over any power that is not directly delegated to the fed gov

-Dobbs v Jackson

-US v Lopez (SC decision)-significant bc first time since 1937 SC ruled fed gov exceeded its authority under commerce clause

Mini judgement 1

Overall whilst constitutional protection such as 10th amendment and SC ruling demonstrate federalism still exists and is protected, the broad interpretation of federal powers and growing use of executive authority suggest that balance of powers has increasingly shifted towards fed gov in recent years.

Topic 2

Civil rights protection

For 2

Civil rights protection by the federal gov comes at the cost of erosion of federalism and declining states autonomy

-Civil rights Act 1964

-Obergefell v Hodges 2015 -fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same sex couples under the 14th amendment

-protection of individual rights by the fed gov can limit state’s autonomy, shift power away from state to fed gov and weakening federalism

Against 2

-Dobbs v Jackson 2022

-Court ruled constitution doesn’t guarantee federal right to abortion, return authority to regulate abortion to individual state

-strengthen federalism with state once again able to set their own abortion laws leading to significant variation across country

-Texas Senate Bill 2284

Mini judgement 2

In this case, though individual rights protection has given federal gov more power arguably infringing on state’s autonomy, stronger argument here is that recent trend from Trump (republican) with core beliefs in federalism and small gov has created trend of strengthened federalism through restoration of state’s authority