Examples of federal governments include those of Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Malaysia, Pakistan, India, Russia, the former Soviet Union and the United States.
McCulloch v. Maryland was a seminal case handed down by the Supreme Court in 1819 that prevented State legislatures from taxing federal institutions.
Professor Scott Dodson proposes a theory that argues that American federal law has some measurable effect on state law and compares this effect to a gravitational force that while not "inexorable", influences state actors to create legislature in accordance with or at least closely aligned with federal legislature.
Dodson justifies the existence of this "pull" by arguing that state legislators and courts rarely exercise their constitutional power to deviate from Federal Law despite having the capability.
This case was brought as a class-action lawsuit by a group of African American rail workers to a Federal District Court in Texas and stating that "their collective bargaining agent be compelled to represent them fairly" in accordance with the Railway Labor Act.