Why has the Supreme Court gotten more powerful over the last 75 years? Judge Jeffrey Sutton explains that the expanded role of the Commerce Clause, as well as the incorporation of the Amendments (making them applicable to the states), have together dramatically increased the role of the federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court in determining the meaning of our American constitutional liberty guarantees. Today, we have a system where the federal government has power that overlaps with states, which makes Federalism now very different from what it was at the time of the Founding.

Jeffrey S. Sutton sits on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Sutton was a partner with the law firm of Jones Day Reavis & Pogue in Columbus, Ohio, and served as State Solicitor of the State of Ohio. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (Ret.), the Honorable Antonin Scalia and the Honorable Thomas J. Meskill. He is the author of 51 Imperfect Solutions: States and the Making of American Constitutional Law.

As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.

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