Flutterby™! : Local Autonomy

A nice little run-down of how much of the current autonomy by liberal states and cities that conservatives are decrying draws strength from the states rights legal frameworks that spawned in the late 1970s and early 1980s: Donald Trump blames liberal judges for thwarting him on sanctuary cities. He should blame conservative lawyers instead.

But one group dissented from the prevailing view of federal-state relations. In the early 1980s, the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies — at that time a ragtag collection of conservative and libertarian law students, professors, litigators and judges — began to push for a revival of the 10th Amendment and the attendant doctrine of state sovereignty. In 1982, the Federalist Society's first national conference featured several speeches arguing that power should be taken away from an overreaching federal government and given back to the states and local governments through the 10th Amendment. Speeches such as "The Revival of States' Rights" and "In the Beginning Are the States" decried the "suffocating" and destructive consequences of federal programs that put "coercive" conditions on the states. These speakers didn't see the relationship between federal government and the state as being "cooperative" relationships. Instead, they harped on the coercive elements of federal programs, arguing that they deprived states and local governments of autonomy and self-rule.