Summary: The Evolution Of Federalism

In 2012, the Supreme Court struck down an Arizona law aimed at illegal immigration. The ruling stated that the state could not supercede federal statutes (Sorenson). This power play between the Court and the state is an example of how federalism did not fulfill the framers’ vision of an institution that protected states’ rights from an ever-growing national government. In forming the Constitution, the framers had designed it to be a solution to unifying the states without taking all their rights. As seen during its early performance, federalism achieved its goal of dividing power between the states and federal government. However, all throughout history, there has been a steady transfer of power from the states to the national government. As a result of this evolution, modern performance of federalism has drastically shifted from what the framers had ever intended, and that is due to its …show more content…
Because of its ever-changing, dynamic nature, federalism has transformed and evolved in many different ways. Supreme Court rulings and new legislation can always flip the power play between the state and federal governments. For example, meant to be interpreted to execute enumerated powers, the ruling of the Necessary and Proper Clause by Justice Marshall gave Congress far more powers than those stated in the Constitution. Policies such as the New Deal allowed the federal government’s power to greatly expand. And with a national government that shares power with all of the state governments, conflict between the parties prevents and adds hostility to the creation of national legislation. This occurs because there would not be a single set of attitudes on issues; instead, the United States has fifty-one policies, which then leads to clashing legislation and inability to get politics accomplished. This flawed design contributed to the poor execution of Constitutional