2.5 Federalism- Typology and Functions

Dual Federalism

Despite Chief Justice Marshall's strong push for the federal government, the court of his successor, Roger B. Taney (1835–1863), decided cases that favored equally strong national and state governments. The basic philosophy during this time was that the U.S. Government ought to be limited to its enumerated powers and that all others belonged to the states.

The theory originated within the Jacksonian democracy movement as pushback against the mercantilist American System and centralization of government under the Adams administration during the 1820s.[1] With an emphasis on local autonomy and individual liberty, the theory served to unite the principles held by
multiple sectional interests: the republican principles of northerners, the proslavery ideology of southern planters, and the laissez-faire entrepreneurialism of western interests.

During the 1830s, Jacksonian Democrats employed the theory with effect. President Jackson used the theory as part of his justification in combating the national bank (e.g., the bank's reauthorization bill sought to shield the private, non-governmental business of the national bank from state taxation). Additionally, the Supreme Court— under the leadership of Jackson's appointee to Chief Justice, Roger B. Taney—moved the law in the direction of dual federalism. Chiefly, the Court used the theory to underpin its rationale in cases where it narrowed the meaning of commerce (and thereby Congress's power over it) and expanded state authority through enlarging state police power, particularly with an eye toward protecting southern autonomy and its power over slavery.

Examine the following cases-linked on main page- 

• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)-National Supremacy and Implied Powers

• Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)-Interstate Commerce

• Barron v. Baltimore (1833)- Removed the Bill of Rights from the states.

• Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)-Established a clear division between the state and federal government.

Cooperative Federalism

 New Federalism

Another movement calling itself "New Federalism" appeared in the late 20th century and early 21st century. New Federalism, which is characterized by a gradual return of power to the states, was initiated by President Ronald Reagan (1981–1989) with his "devolution revolution" in the early 1980s and lasted until 2001. Previously, the federal government had granted money to the states categorically, limiting the states to use this funding for specific programs. Reagan's administration, however, introduced a practice of giving block grants freeing state governments to spend the money at their own discretion.

New Federalism is sometimes called “states rights", although its proponents usually eschew the latter term because of its associations with Jim Crow and segregation Unlike the states' rights movement of the mid-20th century which centered around the Civil Rights Movement the modern federalist movement is concerned far more with expansive interpretations of the Commerce Clause. (Interstate Commerce.)

United States v. Alfonso Lopez, Jr. (1995) Rejects the Federal governments use of the Commerce Clause to regulate guns in the states.

United States v. Morrison (2000) Rejects the Federal governments use of the Commerce Clause to expand rights of women who are victims of domestic violence.