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Faculty Scholarship

Series

2004

Federalism

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

The Inherent Flaws In The Inherent Authority Position: Why Inviting Local Enforcement Of Immigration Laws Violates The Constitution, Immigr. & Nat'lity L. Rev., Huyen Pham Jul 2004

The Inherent Flaws In The Inherent Authority Position: Why Inviting Local Enforcement Of Immigration Laws Violates The Constitution, Immigr. & Nat'lity L. Rev., Huyen Pham

Faculty Scholarship

After 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that state and local authorities have "inherent authority" as sovereigns to enforce federal immigration laws. This announcement, a reversal from previous legal positions taken by DOJ, sent shockwaves through the immigrant and law enforcement communities. Previously, immigration law had been treated, both by law and in practice, as the exclusive province of the federal government.

This article considers the constitutional barriers to local enforcement. Although the fascinating interplay among immigration law, national security and anti-terrorism, and federalism has been highlighted in some of the debate up to now, the federalism-related issues go beyond …


Treaties And International Regulation, Lori Fisler Damrosch Jan 2004

Treaties And International Regulation, Lori Fisler Damrosch

Faculty Scholarship

The authority of Missouri v. Holland is in no way impaired by developments of the last decade. While Justice Holmes rejected the view that "invisible radiation" from the Tenth Amendment could restrict the treaty power, his approach accepts that a treaty cannot violate "prohibitory words" in the Constitution. Some prohibitory words explicitly protect the interests of the states as against the national government. For example, the framers clearly meant the prohibition in Article I, section 9 on export taxes to bar one form of potential federal taxation that the Southern states found worrisome. In the face of this specific prohibition, …