Federalism and Family

To bring a legal issue into the purview of federal authority, advocates have to describe the issue as a subject of one of the enumerated federal powers. It has to involve commerce or a constitutionally guaranteed right, or be a dispute between citizens of diverse jurisdictions, for examples. It is n...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Columbia journal of gender and law 1999-01, Vol.8 (2), p.197
Main Author: Adler, Libby S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Government
Law
Politics
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:To bring a legal issue into the purview of federal authority, advocates have to describe the issue as a subject of one of the enumerated federal powers. It has to involve commerce or a constitutionally guaranteed right, or be a dispute between citizens of diverse jurisdictions, for examples. It is not inherent in federalism, however, that describing a matter as "commerce" precludes its also being described as "family." An object of federal governance can be "commerce" as well as "farming," or "commerce" as well as "telecommunications," or "commerce" as well as "art," so why not "commerce" as well as "family"? The only possible answer to this question is that family, unlike farming, telecommunications, and art, is somehow incompatible with federal governance--but this answer would be wrong. Family is not only compatible with federal governance; it is vital to it.
ISSN:1062-6220