Posted on 10/11/2019 7:22:42 AM PDT by Jagermonster
Why We Wrote This
At the heart of the ongoing feud between California and the Trump administration lies a familiar tug of war over the role of states’ rights. But this time around, the players seem to have switched teams.
States’ rights are sacred for many conservatives in the United States.
So how did liberal California become a poster child for states’ rights in its escalating battle with the Trump administration on environmental regulation?
From fuel emissions to oil and gas drilling permits, California is at war with the Trump administration. And at the heart of the feud is the state’s desire to set its own environmental regulations – an issue of states’ rights, and also a continuation of the “cooperative federalist” model that has long been a backbone of American environmental policy. But in this case, as well as in environmental battles being fought in other states, it’s the Republican administration arguing for the supremacy of federal rule.
“They’re exercising what the Western Governors’ Association executive director has called ‘fair-weather federalism,’” says David Hayes, executive director of the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at New York University School of Law and deputy interior secretary under President Barack Obama. “As long as states do what they want them to do, it’s fine. If they exercise their rights in a way that the feds don’t like because it’s not consistent with their policy, then they’re against it.”
In California, as in some other liberal-leaning states, states’ rights has become a rallying cry. “To those who claim to support states’ rights – don’t trample on ours,” proclaimed California Attorney General Xavier Becerra last month, after the Trump administration revoked the state’s long-standing waiver that...
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Two words, Commerce Clause...
If Cali is allowed to exercise their states rights in enviro matters, I would imagine this would open the door for other states to reassert their interests in other political matters.
I totally support States Rights. I think it will be ruinous to California, but that is their problem.
Federal government needs to be smaller and weaker. States need to shoulder the bulk of the work. We need to get back to the point where states decided for themselves how intrusive they wanted government to be.
Because they’re completely unprincipled, they’ll use legal tools we support to achieve their short term ends.
This illustrates perfectly why “conservatism” is a lost cause. Liberty is great, so long as you use it for the “right” reasons. When nonsensical leftists want to use it to legalize dope, or enact looney enviro causes, or create sanctuary cities, or any number of idiotic causes, then conservatives become as totalitarian as any leftist.
As long as the patron saint of conservatives is Rick “the constititution does not give the right to do wrong” Santorum, then we will continue to see power and decision making flow to DC.
Amendment 10 either means something, or it doesn’t. Take your pick
And sanctuary state and cities too:-)
Liberals are the ones who decided to federalize everything from education to energy. If California wants its own environmental regs, abolish the EPA and federal rules and return that function to the states. It was never an authorized federal power in the first place.
But careful what you wish for ...
Progressives have no interest at all in limiting government power. They care only for accumulating it. No reference by a Progressive to ideas like federalism, separation of powers, or individual civil rights should be viewed as sincere.
It has been that way since the earliest days of Progressivism more than a century ago, when Teddy Roosevelt referred to limited government as “a bit of outward academic doctrine,” and exclaimed “ To hell with the Constitution when the people want coal!”
Be careful what you wish for ...
CW I was fought over “States Rights”!
Exactly. CA is such a huge market it can bully the rest of the country if they are allowed to impose their own standards
because it kills the bottom line to make 2 or more versions of a product so you make one version that can sold in all locations.
Leftists are perfectly willing to use and abuse a system to help them in the short term as they work to destroy it in the long term. Some on the right don’t get that.
I was watching a Barrett-Jackson Car Auction being held in CA years ago. One of the Cars was being sold with the caveat that is could not legally be Registered in CA.
What does that tell you. Cars, Guns, Gasoline blends, take your pick, it’s like CA is a different Country not a State.
All throughout our history, any politician of any ideology has been quick to denigrate State’s Rights when it suited them and quick to praise the same as the foundation of liberty when it suited them. Plenty of hypocrisy on both sides, going nearly all the way back.
It’s like drawing districts for congressional elections, every party draws them to their utmost advantage any time they can. A joke going back nearly two centuries “It’s ‘Gerrymandering’ when *THEY* do it”.
“I like the phrase “fair-weather federalism” for the attitude that states rights only matter when they help you get what you want, otherwise, its ‘go, big government!””
That is definitely true. Both sides practice it, what’s different is the Rats get away with it a lot more than we do.
Look at what they did to Arizona when it tried to enforce immigration laws vs. what California and other states are getting away with. It’s the same with many other issues.
Yep. And states’ rights lost. Much to our detriment.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.