Fugitive Slaves and American Federalism
From the Constitutional Convention of 1787 until the end of the Civil War, slavery undermined American federalism and challenged the very possibility of harmony…
Frankfurter, Felix
No person rose from more humble beginnings, was more brilliant, and seemed more fully prepared for service on the Supreme Court than Felix Frankfurter.…
Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt (2019)
In Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt (2019), the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision that a state’s sovereign immunity protects a…
Federalism Summit
The States’ Federalism Summit was a three-day conference held in October 1995 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to assess the state of American federalism and to…
Texas v. White (1869)
The case of Texas v. White (1869) is particularly important because in it the Supreme Court, speaking through Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, gave…
Local Government
Local governments are organized closest to where people live in order to meet community needs, solve problems, and deliver basic life amenity services. In…
Health Care Policy
This entry examines significant health policy at the state and national levels largely since the New Deal and describes the nature of intergovernmental relations.…
Federal-Local Relations
There is a strong commitment to states’ rights in American political culture, and an even deeper dedication to local control. As a result many…
U.S. Territories
Article IV, Section 3, of the Constitution empowers Congress “to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other…
State Constitutions
The final quarter of the twentieth century brought a resurgence of interest in state constitutions, as lawyers, law professors, and, most famously, U.S. Supreme…
Special Districts
Special districts are units of government that have elected or appointed officials and public accountability to other units of government normally within a narrowly…
Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974
The problem of water pollution became a public concern in 1969, when the polluted Cuyahoga River, flowing through Cleveland, Ohio, caught fire. The Safe…
Public Lands
There are over 573 million acres of land in the federally held public domain. The public lands are some 264 million acres of federal…
