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Federalism, Law Enforcement, And The Supremacy Clause: The Strange Case Of Ruby Ridge, Seth P. Waxman

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

There is no "federalism clause" in the Constitution, and the case law ranges over a number of different provisions - the Commerce and General Welfare Clauses, and the Eleventh and Fourteenth Amendments, for example. But the two provisions that most directly implicate the doctrine are the Supremacy Clause and the Tenth Amendment. The former states that "[t]his Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof ... shall be the supreme Law of the Land ....”, The latter provides that "[t]he powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by …