Legal Commentary

Headline: ?Poll: Nevadans favor balanced federal budget, let states repeal federal laws?

By Randy Barnett

In response to Virginia Speaker William Howell and my op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, The Case for a ?Repeal Amendment?, the Las Vegas Review-Journal decided to poll Nevadans on their views of an amendment allowing the legislatures of 2/3 of the states to repeal any federal law or regulation. This is the first such poll on the proposal and the results, which you can read here, are promising. 49 percent of Nevadans supported the concept; 27 percent were opposed; with 24 percent undecided. Of course, like any proposal limiting state or federal power, a Repeal Amendment can be demagogued, and it surely will be if it gains any political traction. Critics will point to popular laws that states could repeal. Of course, Congress now has the power to repeal popular laws, but chooses not to because . . . well, because they are popular. 2/3 of state legislatures are well aware of what is popular too. (Or perhaps more importantly 1/3 +1 of state legislatures are enough to keep popular legislation in force by blocking any repeal.) But we may have entered a period in which the usual demagoguery won?t work as well as it has in the past. Heck, the fact the the Las Vegas Review-Journal would poll this proposal on the basis of an op-ed suggests something about th time in which we are now living.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on September 28, 2010 (boomark / email).