Justice Kennedy affirms federalism

Writing for a unanimous Supreme Court in Bond v. United States, June 16, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote:

“Federalism is more than an exercise in setting the boundary between different institutions of government for their own integrity. . . . Federalism also protects the liberty of all persons within a State by ensuring that laws enacted in excess of delegated governmental power cannot direct or control their actions. . . . By denying any one government complete jurisdiction over all the concerns of public life, federalism protects the liberty of the individual from arbitrary power. When government acts in excess of its lawful powers, that liberty is at stake. . . . The limitations that federalism entails are not therefore a matter of rights belonging only to the States. States are not the sole intended beneficiaries of federalism. . . . An individual has a direct interest in objecting to laws that upset the constitutional balance between the National Government and the States when the enforcement of those laws causes injury that is concrete, particular, and redressable. Fidelity to principles of federalism is not for the States alone to vindicate.”

Great stuff there! And from an unanimous Court, no less!

See, when the designers of the Constitution formed our framework, they didn’t just have in mind the need to protect the States against the Federal Government, but also that the entire relationship of the States to the Federal Government would be crafted in such a way as to ultimately protect the individuals, us. And one of the ways we are protected is by the States each having a high degree of freedom to craft the conditions within their own domain so that there may be variety and competition between them for our presence. That way, if I like what New Mexico is doing and dislike what Arizona is doing, I can move to New Mexico. But the more the Federal Government sets policy for everyone in the U.S., this individual State liberty is reduced and the options available for us citizens are thereby eliminated. That’s just one way in which keeping the Federal Government within its Constitutional bounds protects us as individuals.