Fights between U.S. States and the National Government Are Endangering Public Health

Americans have long been proud of our federalism, the way that we divide governmental power between the states and national government. As former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy famously explained, the framers of the U.S. Constitution “split the atom of sovereignty” creating “two political capacities, one state and one federal, each protected from incursion by the other.” In theory, this political invention serves to preserve liberty while bringing the government closer to the people. It allows red states to enact laws to their pleasing, and blue states to do the same....