tagging+exercise


 * There are three options for tags for these cards. Which is the most accurate, word efficient and argumentative?

A. The Rehnquist Court reshaped constitutional rules governing the balance between the natioinal government and the states, articulating a narrow standard for federal jurisdiction. B. The Rehnquist Court 1995 decision was arguably a federalism revolution. C. Court rulings have upheld federalism**

Bradley W. Joondeph, Associate Professor, Santa Clara University School of Law, “The Deregulatory Valence of Justice O’Connor’s Federalism,” Houston Law Review, Fall, 2007 (44 Hous. L. Rev. 507) This much is not news: the Rehnquist Court reshaped the constitutional rules governing the respective roles of the national government and the states in our federal republic. 14 The Court [*512] articulated a new and arguably narrower standard for evaluating whether a federal statute falls within Congress's commerce power. 15 It developed a fairly restrictive understanding of the breadth of Congress's legislative authority under Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment, requiring that such legislation be [*513] "congruent and proportional" to the constitutional violations that Congress seeks to remedy or prevent. 16 It minted the so-called "anticommandeering" principle, which prohibits Congress from directing the states to enact or implement particular regulation. 17 It held that Congress cannot use its Article I powers to enact legislation subjecting the states to suits for damages, 18 overruling the relatively recent precedent of Pennsylvania v. Union Gas. 19 Further, the Court extended this principle of sovereign immunity to suits brought in any court, whether state or federal, 20 as well as to adjudicative proceedings before federal administrative agencies. 21 Some have argued that, despite the considerable [*514] attention these decisions have drawn, their practical effects have actually been quite modest. 22 For instance, the Court's Commerce Clause decisions affect only a small spectrum of activity that Congress might otherwise regulate - activity that is noncommercial, noneconomic, and purely intrastate. 23 Its sovereign immunity decisions leave open a host of alternative means for enforcing federal law against state governments, most notably suits for injunctions under Ex Parte Young. 24 Its anticommandeering decisions prohibit a form of legislation that Congress had employed only rarely and for which there are typically a number of effective substitutes. 25 Perhaps most significantly, the Rehnquist Court did nothing to trim Congress's authority under the Spending Clause, leaving Congress the ability to circumvent most of these constraints by enacting conditional spending legislation aimed at the states. 26 Still, even if the Rehnquist Court's federalism decisions did not constitute a "federalism revolution," they seem to have done something. It is now clear, as it was not before 1995, that there are judicially enforceable limits on Congress's commerce power, particularly with respect to activities that have historically been regulated by the states. 27 Congress's capacity to enact legislation to enforce the proscriptions of the Fourteenth Amendment has been narrowed, such that any legislative effort to enforce a constitutional right or to protect a class of citizens that the Court has not deemed deserving of heightened judicial scrutiny is [*515] virtually per se invalid. 28 And, because Congress can abrogate the sovereign immunity of states only through legislation enacted under the Reconstruction Amendments, 29 Congress has lost an important means for enforcing federal law against the states. These consequences are not trivial. Moreover, if the Rehnquist Court did not move the law in revolutionary directions itself, it may nonetheless have laid the groundwork for a future Court to do so. As others have noted, the newly constituted Roberts Court could use the Rehnquist Court's precedents to disrupt some long-settled constitutional understandings. 30 It could hold that landmark environmental legislation, such as the Endangered Species Act or the Clean Water Act, is beyond Congress's commerce power, at least in many of its applications, because the regulated activity is not sufficiently connected to interstate commerce. 31 It could conclude that the anticommandeering decisions have effectively undermined Garcia and hold that Congress cannot use its commerce power to regulate certain functions of state governments. 32 It could hold that the disparate impact provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are unconstitutional as applied to state governments, at least with respect to private suits for damages, because they are not "congruent and proportional" to any purported constitutional violations. 33 [*516] Conceivably, though much less likely, it could hold that most federal antidiscrimination legislation is beyond Congress's commerce power because the regulated activity of discrimination - whether based on race, gender, religion, age, or disability - is not "economic" or "commercial" in nature. 34

B. States are best suited for promoting renewables and encourage federal modeling C. States Solve**
 * A. 40 of 50 states are already solving - 13 states have RPS, 27 states have climate change plans

Dr. Harlan L. Watson, Senior Climate Negotiator and Special Representative and Head of the U.S. Delegation to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, “Statement to the Second Meeting of the Plenary,” 12-4-2003 ([|http://www.state.gov/g/oes/rls/rm/2003/26894.htm)] Finally, I would like to highlight the efforts being made by State and local governments in the United States to address climate change. Geographically, the United States encompasses vast and diverse climatic zones representative of all major regions of the world -- polar, temperate, semi-tropical, and tropical -- with different heating, cooling, and transportation needs and with different energy endowments. Such diversity allows our State and local governments to act as laboratories where new and creative ideas and methods can be applied and shared with others and inform federal policy -- a truly bottom-up approach to addressing global climate change. At the State level, 40 of our 50 States have prepared GHG inventories, 27 States have completed climate change action plans, and 8 States have adopted voluntary GHG emissions goals. In addition, 13 States have adopted “Renewable Portfolio Standards” requiring electricity generators to gradually increase the portion of electricity produced from renewable resources such as wind, biomass, geothermal, and solar energy. And, at the local level, more than 140 local governments participating in the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign are developing cost-effective GHG reduction plans, setting goals, and reducing GHG emissions.