Video of Federalist Society Executive Branch Review Panel on "State Sovereignty or Fair-Weather Federalism?"

Participants include Prof. Edward Rubin (Vanderbilt), Prof. Carolyn Shapiro (Chicago-Kent), Ilya Shapiro (Cato Institute), and myself.

The video of yesterday's Federalist Society Executive Branch Review conference panel on federalism is now available here. I have also embedded it in this post below.

Because of a last-minute substitution (Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone dropped out), this panel featured not one but two Ilyas: Ilya Shapiro of the Cato Institute and myself. That risks exacerbating the longstanding problem of #IlyaConfusion—especially since the "other" Ilya and I have very few disagreements about this set of issues. I agreed with over 95% of what he said and he likely agreed with the vast bulk of my points, as well. We certainly agreed with each other more than I would have with SG Stone, had he been able to participate. Readers who want avoid #IlyaConfusion are encouraged to read my comprehensive guide to telling the two Ilyas apart.

On a slightly more serious note, both I and Ilya Shapiro did differ on various points with the other two panelists. For example, Prof. Rubin is a leading academic critic of constitutional federalism (which he sees as "vestigial" and mostly harmful, at least in the United States), whereas I argued that there are major benefits to enforcing constitutional limits on federal power.

In my presentation, I outlined key advantages of enforcing tight limits on federal power, went over some key federalism controversies of the Trump and Biden administrations, and briefly described some prospects for the future of federalism.

 

Comments

[DaivdBehar]

Musk is showing the way to deal with the scumbag lawyer profession. Ignore it. I would add visits to their offices and messing up the place. When fed officers to try to enforce some depraved decision, have state troopers take them into custody. Kick them out of the state.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-tesla-spacex-regulators-crash-11619624227?mod=hp_lista_pos4

[JohnnyAppleseed]

First semester of 1L, I considered joining FedSoc. I liked a lot of their positions and thought some of the alums were fairly impressive. And then I went to a meeting … Suffice it to say, they had a major aesthetics problem. Hopefully they fix that because many of the 1L clubs 1L’s can join before Moot Court / Mock Trial tryouts and Law Journal Write On are toxic.

[Cal Cetín]

It’s very simple – you either support states in every dispute they have with the feds, or support the feds in every dispute they have with the states, or else you’re a HYPOCRITE!!!

There’s no room for nuance, in fact nuance is the new n-word.

[Bob from Ohio]

Two lefties and two libertarians. I guess I will be busy with other things tonight.

“Prof. Rubin is a leading academic critic of constitutional federalism ”

Unsurprising:

“He has served as a consultant to the People’s Republic of China on administrative law, and to the Russian Federation on payments law.”

No Iran, must be an oversight on his part.

[James Pollock]

Iran doesn’t have any money to spend on consultants.

[M L]

“which he sees as “vestigial””

Well that much is true. The gradual and nearly complete inversion of our system of government is the core problem with everything politics and government-related in the US today.