The right’s constitutional awakening

The Supremacy Clause, which asserts the primary role of the federal courts and the Constitution, could stymie much of this activity. But it’s all part of a movement that Bruce Ackerman, a liberal constitutional scholar from Yale Law School, told POLITICO constitutes “the most serious challenge” to the current constitutional regime since it took shape in the New Deal and the Civil Rights era.

The new constitutional moves on the right have two distinct factions.

From the top, coastal law professors, members of Congress and state attorneys general have developed cases against health care, environmental and campaign finance regulation designed to appeal to at least five justices of the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, from the bottom up, state legislators and lawyers such as newly elected Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who helped draft Arizona’s controversial immigration law, are pushing the boundaries of federal-state relations into new frontiers.