Search results

The Supreme Court's revival of federalism as a limit on national power has roots, in part, in the court's mistrust of the national legislative process & its sense of institutional competition with Congress. To the extent that the Court is concerned about careless legislating, six rules of "care & craft" in drafting legislation are proposed for members of Congress to consider: develop a factual record, reflect the source of constitutional authority, tailor the statute to reach "national" & not "local" matters, consider the implications of decentralized enforcement for surviving constitutional challenges as well as for efficacy, consider whether state governments are treated comparably to the federal government, & be particularly cautious in efforts to overrule the effects of the Court's decisions. To the extent the Court is concerned with its own institutional prerogatives, however, or is committed to a categorical divide between areas constitutionally committed to the states & the federal government, care & craft alone will not be a solution. 28 References. Adapted from the source document.

Within federal structures, citizens in a nested manner can affiliate with both states/provinces (subnational entities) & the national entity, conflict rules designate which citizenship type serves which purpose, & subnational & national governments provide alternative forums for competing claims about citizenship. These structures provide a framework within which to construct multinational citizenship. Conflicts between the concepts of citizenship as identity & as equality, & voting & loyalty issues in multinational citizenship are analyzed, citing experiences with citizenship rules in Western democracies. The benefits of multiple citizenship are weighted against the drawbacks, especially their ability to create intrapolity inequalities & destabilize ethnonationalisms. 93 References. M. Pflum