One of the glories of our constitutional structure is competitive federalism. Under the original Constitution, the states had very substantial powers of regulation. But they were disciplined in large measure because they were forced to compete in a market for governance. If a state imposed too many burdens on their citizens through either taxation or regulation or failed to provide needed public goods, citizens could leave.
For competitive federalism to work well, the federal government, however, does need to facilitate it. Most important are the constitutional rights that ease movement. Article IV of the original Constitution requires each state to extend the privileges and immunities it extends to citizens within its state to citizens of other states. Presumably that right effectively guarantees free movement in, out and, within the state for out-of-state citizens since states universally grant that right to their own citizens. The self-ownership assured by the Thirteenth Amendment eliminated a legal obstacle that African Americans faced travelling from state to state. The First Amendment assures that citizens can hear about conditions in other states and compare it to their own.
But it is not only the Constitution but federal statutes that can make a difference to the vibrancy of state competition.
In this edition of Liberty Law Talk historian Kevin Gutzman discusses his latest book, Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary. We focus on Jefferson's account of federalism, conscience rights, education, and race.
This edition of Liberty Law Talk is a discussion with Mark David Hall about American framer Roger Sherman who was the only framer to sign the Articles of Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution. At the Constitutional Convention, he spoke more than all but three delegates and helped forge the Connecticut Compromise. Yet his writings remain relatively obscure. To help rectify this is Liberty Fund's new volume entitled Collected Works of Roger Sherman, edited by Hall.
Is America in a constitutional crisis or is the country already post-constitutional and merely adjusting to a regime of quasi-law? Bruce Frohnen joins this edition of Liberty Law Talk to discuss this question and his latest book, coauthored with the late George Carey, Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi-Law.
John Inazu has emerged as one of the leading scholars on freedom of association and religious freedom. His earlier book, Liberty's Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly revived our understanding of the significance of freedom of association in American constitutional history. He joins us in this episode of Liberty Law Talk to discuss his latest book, Confident Pluralism on why we must rebuild both the legal and civic engagement aspects of a pluralist society.
