Law Commons^™

Do Citizens Care About Federalism? An Experimental Test, Robert Mikos, Cindy D. Kam

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The ongoing debate over the political safeguards of federalism has essentially ignored the role that citizens might play in restraining federal power. Scholars have assumed that citizens care only about policy outcomes and will invariably support congressional legislation that satisfies their substantive policy preferences, no matter the cost to state powers. Scholars thus typically turn to institutions-the courts or institutional features of the political process-to cabin congressional authority. We argue that ignoring citizens is a mistake. We propose a new theory of the political safeguards of federalism in which citizens help to safeguard state authority. We also test our theory …

Fast-Food Government And Physician-Assisted Death: The Role Of Direct Democracy In Federalism, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Modern patients often enter a twilight zone of suspended animation between living and dying that did not exist a generation ago. The majority of Americans believe these terminal patients should have the right to refuse life support and to receive pain relief, even to the point of hastening death. Yet laws addressing the situation are unclear, and physician advocates, like Dr. Kevorkian of Michigan, have faced sanctions and jail time when they responded to patient requests for help to die peacefully. In its 2006 Gonzales v. Oregon decision, the U.S. Supreme Court shifted the physician-assisted death dilemma to the state-side …

Cooperative Federalism And Healthcare Reform: The Medicare Part D 'Clawback' Example, Elizabeth Weeks Leonard

Scholarly Works

This symposium article recounts recent litigation by several states over a provision of the Medicare Modernization Act Part D prescription drug benefit: The clawback, which requires states to pay the a potentially substantial portion of new federal program. I then examine the unique federalism implications of the clawback for ongoing state and federal health reform initiatives.

In spring 2006, several states petitioned the United States Supreme Court for original jurisdiction to hear a challenge to one provision of the new Medicare Part D prescription drug law. The federal government, while taking over prescription drug coverage for dually eligible beneficiaries, required …

Federalism Doctrines And Abortion Cases: A Response To Professor Fallon, Anthony J. Bellia

Journal Articles

This Essay is a response to Professor Richard Fallon's article, If Roe Were Overruled: Abortion and the Constitution in a Post-Roe World. In that article, Professor Fallon argues that if the Supreme Court were to overrule Roe v. Wade, courts might well remain in the abortion-umpiring business. This Essay proposes a refinement on that analysis. It argues that in a post-Roe world courts would not necessarily subject questions involving abortion to the same kind of constitutional analysis in which the Court has engaged in Roe and its progeny, that is, balancing a state's interest in protecting life against a pregnant …