3: federalism

Federalism – area is controlled by 2 or more govs with one gove subordinate to the other
* National fed gov
* State gov – local govs are part and subordinate to state
2 types of federalism
* Vertical federalism – relationship between states and federal government (subordinate to superior)
* horizontal federalism – relationship between states (between equals)
Opposite of federal system is unitary system – one sole gov, extensions can be squashed any time
Constitution feared to take away individual freedoms and liberties
  * Supremacy clause – if its fed law vs state law, fed wins
  * Commerce clause – framework by which fed gov expanded power
  * McCulloch v Maryland – Necessary and Proper Clause can be used to give national gov leeway in using limited powers
Tenth Amendment
  * Any power not for the nat gov or state is for the people
  * Those more for power to states go with dual federalism – areas of gov are separate from each other; only states can make rules in specific areas
  * Those for a fed gov went with shared federalism – there is no separate sovereignty; fed gov and states should work together on problems (usually wins in arguments) → increased fed power
State interest also protected by 17th Amendment – senators come from popular election
* May have contributed to growing federal power bc senators didn’t need to pay attention to what state legislatures wanted them to do

19th century

Fed power grew stronger than states after great depression and WWII
19th century, states tightly guarded their power
* 1828, 1832 fed gov put high taxes on imports and exports, but South Carolina said it wouldn’t apply to their states–nullification–bc it hurts their crop exports
* Biggest issue was on slavery
Missouri Compromise of 1820–Missouri as slave state, Maine as free state, set line for slave and free states
* Compromise collapsed mid-19th century in Dred Scott v Sanford 1857
Dred Scott v. Sanford – Supreme Court declared Compromise unconstitutional, said Black ppl can’t be US citizens = can’t go to court for their freedom (Scott was black)
* Bad decision → started Civil War bc politicians couldn’t compromise
Civil War – fed gov won, became stronger and states weaker
  * To win fed gov expanded fed activity–bigger militia, Dept of Agriculture made to help farmers
    * Increased non-postal fed employees
  * Civil War Amendments (13-15): 14th amendment most important
    * Gave power to Congress to do whatever to make states comply with law
Industrialization led to US becoming a national market
* Fed gov regulates commerce between states thru Commerce Clause

20th century

10/29/1929 – Blackout Tuesday, start of Great Depression
Prez Herbert Hoover reluctant to help bc thought nat gov shouldn’t override regulations of the state
* Didn’t work bc in a national economy states can’t help themselves
FDR elected, started aggressive federal relief program aka New Deal to regulate interstate commerce under Commerce Clause
WWII 1941 – alleviated economic issues
* Production needs caused huge increase in employment
* More production → employers compete for workers → higher wages
After Depression and WWII, ppl used to fed gov solving problems against the nation
* Turn to more racial problems – gov used it to expand powers
Intervention powers weakened late 1970s-early 1980s bc of neoliberalism
* Neoliberalism – power of free market, eliminate gov intervention in economy

Prisoner’s dilemma – 2 prisoners, same choice: cooperate and get shorter sentence or stay silent and get higher sentence
  * If both stay silent, both go free
  * State = prisoner (ex. In child labor laws)
    * Both wants to end child labor but if only one ends then other that kept it will have cheaper labor costs
Fed gov imposed uniform policy, stopped race to the bottom (states stuck with suboptimal policies )
* Other ex: tax breaks to companies moving cities

Devolution – transfer of power from higher to lower levels (fed gov to state)
  * Started under Nixon, accelerated by Reagan thru fiscal (revenue, taxes) means by giving states more freedom on spending
  * fiscal federalism – fed gov encourages states to cooperate with fed policies by paying for policy
    * Give money with few strings attached

Block grants

Block grants – fed grant goes directly to county/city instead of state
Receiving end is in charge of administering program
BUT fed gov can’t control how money is spent once it’s set aside for that purpose
* Ex. Mental Health Block Grant – allocates money to state to fund treatment but standards of program decided by local councils

Matching Grants

Matching grants – fed gov matches amount spent by state on a particular program
* Ex. medicaid: matches state spending at 2:1 ratio
* Incentivizes state to increase spending bc it gets free money (state spends $50 million but gets $100 million)
Matching grants help stop race-to-the-bottom
  * Ex. state focuses on healthcare for poor, poor migrate to that state and increase amt the state needs to spend to support more resident
  * Matching grant and incentivizing spending – fed gov can set floor on how much healthcare is available
    * More spent in poor states than rich
Modern federalism operation – gov sets policy parameters and pays for program → state or local employees administer daily
* Local workforce growing quickly

Immigration

Fed gov has authority to set immigration policy for the nation
* States have some room to make policies where fed gov didn't
States want to regulate immigration bc…
* Immigrant families have more kids = education = money
States with more immigration have special incentives to regulate immigration separate from national policy
* Immigrant adults pay more in fed tax than received in benefits
* Kids of immigrants pay more in tax too
Arizona tried to aggresively pursue undocumented immigrabts
  * Make life uncomfortable enough to make them move
  * Laws:
    * Tried to make it a state crime to not have fed immigration docu
    * Crime to apply for work in state if undoc
    * Require law enforcement to check immigration status if they were already stopped for another violation
Arizona v US – Supreme Court said no to first two laws, kept 3rd
  * Enforcing immigration law implicated foreign policy concerns
  * Only fed gov has power over immigration
    * Fed gov didn’t make it a crime to not have doc so Arizona can’t
    * 3rd law kept bc it only supports already-existing law
Sanctity cities – won’t allow local law enforcement to help fed gov enforce federal immigration law (Boston, Chicago, NY, SF, Colorado, New Mexico)
* Republicans try to punish: trump administration tried to punish by stopping all fed funding
* Fed judges saw this as unconstitutional bc most of $ had nothing to do with immigration

Public health

COVID-19 pandemic – Trump administration left it to gov to set disease policies
* Decentralized response to virus
* Disputes b/w local officials and state leaders
Densely populated cities – strict mandates
* More likely to be democrats
Less populated – less strict