Ch. 5. STATE SOVEREIGNTY AND FEDERAL REGULATION

1. State Immunity from Federal Regulation

NEW YORK v. UNITED STATES, p. 227 (1992).

What activity is being regulated, and for what purpose?

Is it an economic activity, or is it a non-economic activity which would be excluded from the commerce power under Lopez?

In what sense does the case implicate the 10th Amendment?

• mechanism for regulation: delegation to the states of responsibility for disposal of low-level radioactive waste

• inducements employed to encourage the states to meet this responsibility
• incentives
• sanctions
• What elements of the federal law are held unconstitutional?

Earlier cases in the sequence leading up to (and cited in) New York

• Application of general federal regulations to states as such
• National League of Cities v. Usery: wage-and-hour regulation applied to state employees, held unconstitutional
• Garcia v. SAMTA overruling NLoC
• Gregory v. Ashcroft and "plain statement rule"
• How is New York different from these cases?
• Federal inducements to the adoption of state regulations
• Steward Machine Co. v. Davis: adopt an unemployment tax and insurance scheme and we will remit 90% of our tax
• Hodel and the Strip Mining Act: enact strip mining regulations on our model or we will implement our own
• FERC v. Mississippi: consider adopting regulations on our model, and follow certain procedures in doing so, or we will implement our own
• How does New York v. United States differ from these cases?

PRINTZ v. U.S., p. 242 (1998)

• In what way is the state regulated, and for what purpose?
• Is this regulation distinguishable from New York v. U.S.?
• Administrative, rather than legislative function?
• Should that make a difference?
• How is this case distinguishable, if at all, from the regulation of the state judicial function imposed by the Supremacy Clause and (implicitly) by Art. III?

Reno v. Condon, p. 252 (2000): how does this regulation differ from Printz?