Limiting Leviathan: The States’ Role in Protecting Liberty

Deborah O'Malley / February 19, 2010

The American Founders recognized that federalism is essential to maintaining individual liberty in the United States. The Constitution therefore grants the federal government only certain limited powers which were specifically enumerated in the document, and thus requires the different sovereigns (state and federal) to compete for the affection of the people. It also allows the people to seek support from one level of government if the other begins to act in a tyrannical way. Those safeguards to liberty in constitutional federalism cease to exist if one sovereign becomes the vassal of the other.

Yet, over the past 80 years and accelerating in the last several decades, the federal government has steadily wrested power from the states and the people in a variety of areas, often preventing states from protecting the individual constitutional rights of their citizens. On Monday March 1st at The Heritage Foundation at noon, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott will address this timely issue. (more…)