AT THE dawn of the republic,the Federalist Party advocated a strong national government with an energetic executive, while anti-Federalists worried that too much power at the centre would make for a monarchy, or not a democracy. They wanted power to go to the peripheries. But “federalism” has since become synonymous with states’ rights. Devolving power from Washington,DC to states and localities has been a precedence of the contemporary Republican Party. The current era is changing that. Donald Trump's administration is clamping down on states that are loosening marijuana laws or failing to cooperate with federal authorities to deport undocumented immigrants.
A Supreme Court decision on May 13th strikes a major blow for states' rights. By a 7-2 vote in Murphy v National Collegiate Athletic organization (NCAA), the justices ruled that a 1992 statute banning sports betting was unconstitutional. The law, or the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA),was a bit of an odd duck. It wasn’t a ban on betting, per se, and but a law...
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Source: economist.com