skip to content

National Campaign to Restore Civil Rights

Translate our site!

What Is Federalism - and Why Should You Care?

  • Organization: Lambda Legal
  • Date Created: Wednesday, January 10, 2007
  • Submitted: Wednesday, January 10, 2007
  • Attachment(s): LINK

From Lambda Legal:

"In that so-called revolution, a coalition of conservative justices - led by former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas - have struck down an unprecedented number of laws passed by Congress on federalism grounds. They argue that Congress did not have the power to pass those laws in the first place, because those issues should be handled by each individual state. For example, the "federalism revolution" has been used to invalidate laws addressing national problems like violence against women and gun violence in our schools. Federalism arguments also have been deployed in attacks on the Americans with Disabilities Act, a critically important federal law protecting people who are disabled from discrimination."