Thayerian Deference to Congress and Supreme Court Supermajority Rules: Lessons from the Past (Symposium: Congressional Power in the Shadow of the Rehnquist Court: Strategies for the Future)

Authors

Evan H. Caminker, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2003

Abstract

Over the past eight years, the Supreme Court has been unusually aggressive in its exercise ofjudicial review over federal statutes challenged on federalism grounds. Eleven times the Court has invalidated provisions in federal statutes after determining that Congress exceeded the scope of its limited regulatory authority. In ten of the eleven cases, the vote was 5-4 with the identical five-Justice conservative majority (Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices O'Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas) controlling the decision.

Recommended Citation

Caminker, Evan H. "Thayerian Deference to Congress and Supreme Court Supermajority Rules: Lessons from the Past (Symposium: Congressional Power in the Shadow of the Rehnquist Court: Strategies for the Future)." Ind. L. J. 78, no. 1 (2003): 73-122.