The Jurisprudence of Union

61 Pages Posted: 4 Apr 2014 Last revised: 14 May 2014

See all articles by Gil Seinfeld

Gil Seinfeld

University of Michigan Law School

Date Written: February 20, 2014

Abstract

The primary goal of this Article is to demonstrate that the interest in national unity does important, independent work in the law of vertical federalism. We have long been accustomed to treating union as a constitutionally operative value in cases involving the duties states owe one another (i.e. horizontal federalism cases), but in cases involving the relationship between the federal government and the states, the interest in union is routinely ignored. This Article shows that, across a wide range of cases relating to the allocation of power between the federal government and the states, the states are constrained by a duty to acknowledge their status, and their citizens’ identities, as members of a political community that is national in scope. These decisions are conventionally defended (by both courts and commentators) in supremacy-based terms. But I will show that they are rooted, instead, in an ethic of union.

Suggested Citation

Seinfeld, Gil, The Jurisprudence of Union (February 20, 2014). Notre Dame Law Review, Vol. 89, No. 3, p. 1085, 2014, U of Michigan Public Law Research Paper No. 407, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2399022

Gil Seinfeld (Contact Author)

University of Michigan Law School ( email )

625 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
63
Abstract Views
783
Rank
627,735
PlumX Metrics