The Return of Dual Federalism

Federalism returned....
In National League of Cities v. Usery (1976), Rehnquist, in a 5-4 decision, declared that Congress could not extend the minimum wage and maximum hours provisions of the FLSA to employees of states and their political subdivisions. To do so was to regulate "the States as states."

Federalism beat....
In Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985), NLOC was overruled as the FLSA's regulation of SAMTA was found to be constitutional. Justice Blackmun, one of the majority in NLOC, wrote the majority opinion.

Federalism returned....

In United States v. Lopez (1995) the Court invalidated the Gun-Free School Zones Act as being beyond the scope of the power to regulate interstate commerce. The Court may have done so to rebuke Congress for failing to demonstrate a clear nexus between firearms in or near schools and interstate commerce itself, therefore the Court was unwilling to defer to Congress without such substantiation.

In United States v. Morrison (2000), the civil remedy provision of the Violence Against Women Act was found to be unsupported neither by the power of congress to regulate interstate commerce nor by its power to enforce the 14th Amendment provisions. This in spite of the effects on interstate commerce included in case evidence. CJ Rehnquist wrote the majority
opinion, emphasizing the Court's duty to draw the line between what could properly be the subject of national regulation and what could not. "The Constitution requires a distinction between what is truly national and what is truly local." Most violence has been traditionally within the jurisdiction of the states.

Triumph of national power....
In Tennessee v. Lane (2004), Title II of the ADA was held a valid exercise of Congress' authority to enforce the guarantees of the 14th Amendment.Tthe Court held that Congress had sufficiently demonstrated the problems faced by disabled persons who sought to exercise fundamental rights protected by the Due Process clause of the 14th Amendment (such as access to a court).

In Gonzales v. Raich (2005), the Morrison and Lopez dissenters, along with Kennedy and Scalia, agreed that the Controlled Substances Act could regulate marijuana use (by authority of the Commerce power to regulate) even amidst the presence of California's Compassionate Use Act which allowed for the use thereof.