The Supreme Court did not use the term “federalism” in any opinions in its first 150 years. The Court had (of course) previously talked about federal-state relations, but it did so without the term “federalism”—it preferred a different vocabulary, discussing the police powers of the states and the enumerated powers of the federal government.
Legal History
Many thanks to Amna Akbar, Maggie Blackhawk, Guy Charles, Sheila Foster, Aziz Rana, Justin Simard, Madhavi Sunder, and Gerald Torres for helpful feedback on this piece. I am also grateful to Thanh Nguyen, Tammy Tran, Taylor Ridley, and Rikisha Collins for invaluable research assistance, and to the editors of The University of Chicago Law Review for all their thoughtful work preparing this piece for publication.
In asserting that “this land is our land” in his new book by that title,1 Professor Jedediah Purdy hopes to craft a narrative of possibility and common plight that can serve as a banner high and wide enough for all to unite beneath. The task he undertakes in this meditative collection of essays, written in a colloquial and often poetic tone, is no less than to sketch out a “horizon to aim for”—for all to aim for—a vision of the future to guide the kind of legal, social, and political change he wishes to see.
Volumes
- Volume 91.2March2024
- Volume 91.1January2024
- Volume 90.8December2023
- Volume 90.7November2023
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- Volume 90.4June2023
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- Volume 90.2March2023
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- 84 SpecialNovember2017
- Online 83Presidential Politics and the 113th Justice
- Online 82Grassroots Innovation & Regulatory Adaptation
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