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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2023

Christian G. Fritz
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico School of Law
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Summary

As Americans have monitored federalism, they struggled with how a government based on sovereignty divided between nation and states might function. The Constitution’s shared sovereignty created an inherently dynamic federalism with almost continuous debates over the balance of power, making this testing of the balance of federalism and monitoring government central to the American constitutional order. Many constitutional debates involved the protection of slavery, yet other interests including debt, taxation, and police powers also played vital roles in shaping American federalism. State resistance to the national government utilizing the constitutional tool of interposition arose when the disequilibrium of federalism was most keenly felt and states needed to resist perceived constitutional overreaching by the national government. This state legislative resistance shaped the broader American political conversation about constitutional rights and jurisdiction and this debate over federalism is arguably a strength and not a weakness of the framers’ constitutional design,inviting each generation to determine what the appropriate constitutional balance should be.

Type
Chapter
Information
Monitoring American Federalism
The History of State Legislative Resistance
, pp. 1 - 10
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Introduction
  • Christian G. Fritz, University of New Mexico School of Law
  • Book: Monitoring American Federalism
  • Online publication: 05 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325608.001
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Christian G. Fritz, University of New Mexico School of Law
  • Book: Monitoring American Federalism
  • Online publication: 05 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325608.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Christian G. Fritz, University of New Mexico School of Law
  • Book: Monitoring American Federalism
  • Online publication: 05 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009325608.001
Available formats
×