In analyzing the Supreme Court's powers in federal-state relations, the author demonstrates that the framers of the constitution clearly intended that the Court should be the federal umpire, thus disproving a charge by modern states' righters of usurpation of power by the Supreme Court. In each historical period the effect of the Court interpretations on the autonomy of the state governments and on the acceleration of federal centralization is considered....

"Alexander Hamilton is commonly seen as the standard-bearer of an ideology-turned-political party, the Federalists, engaged in a struggle for the soul of the young United States against the Anti-Federalists, and later, the Jeffersonian Republicans. Alexander Hamilton and the Development of American Law counters such conventional wisdom with a new, more nuanced view of Hamilton as a true federalist, rather than a one-dimensional nationalist, whose...

"Scholars writing about how the federal government should respond to state and local fiscal stress fall into roughly two camps. One group argues that federal bailouts create excessive moral hazard. Another group argues that federal aid is instead a necessary form of macroeconomic stimulus given the pro-cyclical nature of state budgets. While this debate is important, it is incomplete. This chapter will show that there is another consideration that...

Eric A. Posner argues that bailouts, like those that took place during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, have happened in the past and that they are both "necessary and unavoidable in any modern capitalist or market-based system." Posner analyzes bailouts from economic, political, and legal angles.--Provided by publisher.

"America is well on her way to becoming a banana republic. With presidents signing patently unconstitutional legislation, refusing to enforce laws they don't like, and even making appointments without the advice and consent of the Senate, it's clear that the federal Republic our Constitution established is hanging by a thread. And yet the chances that a president who has flouted our founding document and the very rule of law will be impeached are...

"The very notion of states' rights is oxymoronic. States don't have rights. States have powers. People have rights. And the primary purpose of federalism is to protect those rights." With that broadside, author Clint Bolick takes on Robert Bork, William Brennan, states' rights, and other icons of both Left and Right. The greatest threat to liberty in America today, argues Bolick, arises not from national government power but from grassroots tyranny...

Perry shows how an increasing concentration of power in Washington will lead to further unsustainable debt, greater limits on opportunity and success, and a permanent dependency class. The two-term governor of Texas also explains how to put government back in the hands of the people.

"The prizewinning author of Founding Brothers and American Sphinx now gives us the unexpected story--brilliantly told--of why the thirteen colonies, having just fought off the imposition of a distant centralized governing power, would decide to subordinate themselves anew. The triumph of the American Revolution was neither an ideological nor political guarantee that the colonies would relinquish their independence and accept the creation of a federal...

"In this bold and brilliant book, Patrick Garry takes on our overgrown government in the terms of its defenders: he systematically demolishes the argument that a larger government better serves the poor and vulnerable. It is simply essential reading." --Yuval Levin, editor of National Affairs, author of The Fractured Republic and The Great Debate. The debate over the size and scope of the federal government has raged since the New Deal. So why have...

Examines what caused the Tenth Amendment to be born and what effects the amendment has had throughout history and today.