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Did SCOTUS Justify Fear of Federalism?
One of many Post-roe questions
In May, Politico published a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the abortion rights decision — Roe v. Wade (1973). The leaked draft indicated there was no federal right to abortion, and each state had to make its own law regarding the procedure. After hearing the news, conservative commentator Glenn Beck said the Supreme Court was reverting the nation back toward federalism — and that’s a good thing.
We all know the Tenth Amendment established federalism by granting each state powers that were not given to the federal government by the Constitution. Yet many aren’t familiar with the theory of federalism commentators like Beck take for granted.
That theory views each state as a laboratory.
In the world of industry, products are tested for defects before they’re made available. Whereas in the legislative world, there is no laboratory to test laws for unintended harm before they’re made public. If a law is defective, the public suffers until the law is replaced. This process continues until the legislators develop a law that achieves the desired outcome with the least amount of undesired harm to the public.
The laboratory theory suggests it’s better for the experimental process of trial and error to take…