Grassroots Tyranny: The Limits of Federalism
Jan 1993 · Cato Institute
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195
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"The very notion of states' rights is oxymoronic. States don't have rights. States have powers. People have rights. And the primary purpose of federalism is to protect those rights". With that broadside, author Clint Bolick takes on Robert Bork, William Brennan, states' rights, and other icons of both Left and Right. The greatest threat to liberty in America today, argues Bolick, arises not from national government power but from grassroots tyranny inflicted by state and local governments, including tens of thousands of unelected and unaccountable boards and agencies whose numbers are growing constantly. Throughout America, the local leviathan reaches into every aspect of life, intruding into the privacy of bedrooms, the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities, the use and enjoyment of property, the free exchange of ideas, and even the viewing of art. Grassroots Tyranny combines an original and insightful theory of federalism with an analysis of political conflicts that are in today's headlines. Bolick cuts through the murky liberal and conservative theories to offer a clear and refreshing perspective on such contemporary issues as Cincinnati's censorship of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography, South Carolina's taking of David Lucas's beachfront property, the Los Angeles police beating of Rodney King, Georgia's intrusion into Michael Hardwick's bedroom, Detroit's seizure of homes in the Poletown neighborhood, and the District of Columbia's attempt to prevent Ego Brown and Taalib-Din Abdul Uqdah from starting small businesses. From censorship to affirmative action, rent control to drug raids, Bolick shows how state and local governments threaten our freedom and deny us economicopportunity. In all of these cases, issues of federalism are central. Far from acting as a rationale for grassroots tyranny, federalism was designed by the American Founders as a vital constitutional safeguard for individual liberty. Restoring and reinvigorating federalism's original meaning, Bolick argues, is essential to protecting precious liberties against grassroots tyranny in America's third century.
"The very notion of states' rights is oxymoronic. States don't have rights. States have powers. People have rights. And the primary purpose of federalism is to protect those rights". With that broadside, author Clint Bolick takes on Robert Bork, William Brennan, states' rights, and other icons of...
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