Abstract

Same old states' rights song

Whether the U.S. Supreme Court's current assault on the federal government picks up even more steam will be determined by the November presidential election. Presidential candidate Bob Dole's antipathy toward government and his need to work with what will probably be a Republican Congress if he wins will insure that. Since William Rehnquist became Chief Justice, in 1986, conservatives on the Supreme Court have labored mightily to revive the Court's pre-New Deal hostility to federal action. The first attack on Congressional control of the economy came in 1976, in a 5-to-4 decision that exempted states from having to comply with the minimum wage/maximum hours provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act with respect to their own employees.