Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Touro Law Review
Publication Date
Fall 2000
Abstract
The Constitution is an anachronism, 200 years out of date. Although the Bill of Rights is adequate, much of the Constitution relates to a world we no longer face. Certainly it is true that the whole fight in adopting and ratifying the Constitution was between the federalists and the anti-federalists. The anti-federalists did not want a central government because a central government with a standing army could march on the States and use their weapons to impose all kinds of tyranny and deprive the States of their liberty. The whole push and pull of the Philadelphia Convention, the Constitution, and the ratifying conventions was to give the national government some power, but not enough to use that power to somehow overwhelm the States. In light of this, a national government of linited powers was created. Congress was given seventeen enumerated powers and the Necessary and Proper Clause. The States wanted to give the national government only those limited powers that a national government needs, such as, the power to raise an army, control over foreign affairs, and the power to raise taxes; the states wanted to take care of the rest.
Recommended Citation
Leon Friedman,
The Federalism Cases, 17 Touro L. Rev. 271
(2000)
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/faculty_scholarship/229