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Misguided Federalism, Peter J. Henning

Missouri Law Review

Federalism has moved to the forefront of constitutional analysis in recent years as a narrow majority of the Supreme Court has begun to rein in congressional assertions of authority to legislate in areas viewed as beyond the constitutional grant of power to the federal government. One means of curtailing congressional authority is by enforcing limits on the Commerce Clause, perhaps the broadest of Congress’s regulatory powers. In United States v. Lopez, the Court sent a “constitutional wake-up call” making clear that it would no longer acquiesce in every congressional enactment purportedly adopted as an exercise of the commerce power when …