The federal government then monitors outcomes but provides broad discretion to the states for how the programs are implemented.
Advocates of this approach sometimes cite a quotation from a dissent by Louis Brandeis in New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann: It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.From 1937 to 1995, the Supreme Court of the United States did not void a single Act of Congress for exceeding Congress's power under the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, instead holding that anything that could conceivably impact interstate commerce was subject to federal regulation.
It was thus seen as a (narrow) victory for new federalism when the Rehnquist Court reined in federal regulatory power in United States v. Lopez (1995) and United States v. Morrison (2000) by limiting Congress’s power to legislate under the Commerce Clause.
Some New Federalists, such as President Ronald Reagan, have flirted with the idea of abolishing the Department of Education, but the effort has been unsuccessful.
[4] In April 2017, President Donald Trump used an executive order to lessen federal influence over education.