The Governor Tim Pawlenty amicus brief (filed by CEI's Hans Bader and Sam Kazman) in the McCollum litigation does a better job, arguing that South Dakota and Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. [read post]

But query whether in the federalism context, where other plain-statement rules such as that announced in 1991 in Gregory v Ashcroft (which requires Congress to clearly say in the text of a regulatory statute that the statute applies to state and local government entities before states can be required to obey) seem designed to make sure Congress has carefully considered state interests, Congress itself has to be the one to fix any vagueness problems in the terms of… [read post]