Slaying the Dying Dragon of State Sovereignty A Review of Narrowing the Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides without the States, by John T. Noonan, Jr

Abstract

John Noonan cuts a chivalric figure as the author of Narrowing the Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides with the States. He takes up the lance against a maleficent Court dominated by five conservative Justices. The cause of his battle is a series of recent decisions in which the Court has relied on principles of federalism to limit Congress's power over states. These federalism decisions, Noonan contends, so limit Congress's power that they pose a "present danger to the exercise of democratic government."