Congress's Authority to Regulate the Actions of State Governments Flashcards
What is the Anti-Commandeering Principle
The federal govt may neither issue directives requiring states to address particular problems nor command states’ officers or those of their political subdivisions to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program
What are the 3 important limits on the Anti-Commandeering Principle?
1) it only applies to federal laws regulating the states in their sovereign capacities, as regulators or governors of their inhabitants
2) it only forbids federal laws that require the states to take affirmative acts, not those merely prohibiting state action
3) it does not forbid congress from enticing the states to regulate or govern in particular ways even if congress could not command the states to do the same
Instead of Commandeering, Congress can…
Conditional spending, federal regulation, and conditional preemption
how to determine if C is using coercion
the states’ acceptance of the strings attached to the federal dollars must be voluntary
All things considered, do the states have a genuine choice and a real option of rejecting the fed govt’s conditions? If they lack a practical ability to say no then it’s a command
What kind of federal laws is C prohibited from requiring states to follow.
those laws that require states to take affirmative acts, not just prohibiting state action
C must not regulate states in what capacity?
in their sovereign capacities, as regulators or governors of their inhabitants
doesn’t apply to regulation of states’ behavior in other roles such as employers, polluters, etc. In other words, when the state is an object of regulation not a tool of regulation
Why does the anti-commandeering principle only prohibit C from requiring states to take affirmative acts?
because otherwise the anti-commandeering doctrine would swallow up the doctrine of preemption
