This book analyzes the structure of our constitutional system of government, providing an overview of the constitutional history of American federalism as it has been developed in decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Federalism: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution provides a thorough examination of this significant and distinctive part of the U.S. constitutional system, documenting its role in major domestic constitutional controversies in every period of American history. Although the book is organized historically rather than doctrinally, the marked evolutions of important areas of doctrine are addressed over time. These subject areas include the scope of Congress's power under the Commerce Clause, the scope of Congress's powers under the Fourteenth and other post-Civil War Amendments, the states' authority to regulate commercial and economic matters when Congress is silent, the principle of the supremacy of federal law and the law of preemption that follows from it, intergovernmental and sovereign immunities, the obligation of state courts to enforce federal law, and the scope of national power to regulate or impose obligations on the states.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter I: The Founding to the Civil War The Convention and the Constitution Federal Power to Review State Court Decisions and Laws Contracts Clause Eleventh Amendment State Law in Federal Diversity Cases Broad Scope of National Legislative Powers Intergovernmental Tax Immunity Gibbons Indian Tribes as "Dependent Sovereigns" State Legislative Authority in Light of Federal Power: Exclusivity, Concurrency, Supremacy, and Preemption Federal Obligations and State Officials: Extradition and Return State Court Jurisdiction National Powers, Part II: Dred Scott as "Antiprecedent" Chapter II: The Civil War and Its Aftermath The Court's Approach to the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments: Federalism Unchanged? Racism Untamed? State Contracts, Reconstruction Debt, and Eleventh-Amendment Sovereign Immunity State Court Jurisdiction, Intergovernmental Immunity, and Judicial Federalism Business Regulation in a Changing Economy: Due-Process and Commerce-Clause Challenges to State and Federal Regulation Federal Power, Finance, and the National Government's Powers Foreign Affairs: The Rising Claims for Federal Exclusivity Chapter III: The Early Twentieth Century The Distinctive Role of Amendments in Reshaping American Federalism: Taxing, Spending, and the Senate "Classical" Legal Thought and Federal Power over Economic Matters: Commerce Clause, Due Process, and Taxes Child Labor, Outlaw Products, and Lottery Tickets Taxing and Spending Rate Regulation and Business Affected with a Public Interest Railroad Safety, Employment, and the Draft Special Rules for Unions? The Early New Deal Decisions: Commerce, Spending, and Taxing The Dormant Commerce Clause Other Constitutional Limitations on the States Immunities: Sovereign Immunity and Intergovernmental Taxes Judicial Federalism Federalism and Foreign Affairs Chapter IV: The New Deal Court through the Warren Court New Deal Jurisprudence and Federal Power Unleashed The Threat of Court-Packing and the 1937 "Switch in Time" Federal Power Expanded The Commerce Clause and Economic Regulation The Taxing and Spending Power and Cooperative Federalism War Powers: Threats to Federalism? State Government Powers and the Economy Regulatory Powers Unleashed: Due Process and Economic Regulation Erie and Federal Common Law: State Law Extended? The "Dormant" Commerce Clause Foreign Affairs and the Interplay of Federal and State Power Preemption Intergovernmental Immunities State Sovereign Immunity Tax Immunities, Tenth Amendment, and Testamentary Dispositions Judicial and Legislative Immunities Protecting Civil Rights and Liberties: The Changing Role of the Federal Government Brown v. Board of Education and Its Aftermath Federal Civil Rights Legislation: Commerce Clause, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment Powers of Congress The Incorporation Debate and the Criminal Procedure Revolution Reapportionment State Obligations to Hear Federal Claims and Judicial Federalism Judicially Developed Abstention Doctrines: Equity and Comity from Pullman to Dombrowski Habeas Corpus Supreme Court Review of State Court Decisions Chapter V: The "New" Federalism and Its Future The Tenth Amendment: From "Truism" to Constraint Constraining Congress's Enumerated Powers The Commerce and Necessary and Proper Clauses The Spending and Taxing Powers The Enforcement Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment Prophylactic Power: Congruent and Proportional Similar or Different Standards of Review in Affirmative Action Cases? The Eleventh Amendment and Other Doctrines of Intergovernmental Immunity and State Equality The Fundamental Meaning of the Eleventh Amendment: Clear Statements and Limits on Congress's Power Waiver of Immunity; Abrogation under the Fourteenth Amendment Prospective Relief against State Officers Other Intergovernmental Immunities and State Equality Doctrine States' Powers and Constitutional Federalism Constraints Preemption and the Supremacy Clause, Congress and the President, Foreign and Domestic Affairs Constraints Imposed by the "Dormant" Commerce Clause Discrimination Burdens and Balancing Market Participant Doctrine and Permissible Discrimination Subsidies and Permissible Discrimination The Decisive Role of Public Ownership: Municipal Flow Control Privileges and Immunities, the Second Amendment, and Federalism The Interaction of Federal and State Courts: Judicial Federalism Anti-Injunction Act, Younger Abstention, and "Our Federalism" Supreme Court Review of State Court Judgments: Michigan v. Long Habeas Corpus Federal Common Law Other Aspects of Judicial Federalism Conclusion Note on Theories of Federalism and Bibliography Table of Cases Index