Federalism and the U.S. Supreme Court.

This article discusses the impact of rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court on American citizens. As federalism has taken center stage in U.S. Supreme Court battles, the justices have emphasized with increasing frequency the familiar justifications for the constitutionally mandated division of power between national and state government. Over the last decade of the 1990's, the Court has steadily reduced the ability of individual citizens to force a state into court to answer for its conduct. This initiative began with the Court's expansive interpretation of the 11th Amendment, which provides that the judicial power of the U.S. shall not be construed to extend to certain specified types of individual lawsuits. In the second axis of expansion, the Court further impinged on congressional power to create private remedies. Acting in the name of federalism, the Court has thus abstracted sovereign immunity into a free-floating constitutional principle. The upshot of this jurisprudence is clear. Private citizens have lost the ability to enforce a wide range of federal rights by collecting damages from an infringing state government or officer.