Federalism Friction in the First Year of the Trump Presidency

Over the last twelve months or so, federalism principles have been repeatedly invoked by state and local governments in a range of lawsuits and legislative proposals seeking to block or temper federal policy initiatives emanating from the new Administration of President Donald Trump. In this essay, I hope to sketch out a few of the more high-profile federalism flashpoints that have emerged over the past year or so, and offer some preliminary assessments of some of the decisions that lower courts (and legislative bodies) have been rendering in some of them. I try to highlight areas of agreement and areas of divergence. And even as to some areas of agreement, I try to explore plausible arguments to be made that the Supreme Court will (and in some cases perhaps should) see things differently as these disputes begin to make their way up the appellate ladder in the coming months and years.