State Constitutions & General Police Powers

[isomin at gmu.edu]

Another related point:

 Some state courts do in fact overturn state statutes on enumerated powers grounds. For example, as we have discussed recently with respect to the Wal Mart law in Maryland, some state constitutions have prohibitions on "class legislation" that might be used to strike down this kind of law. 

Bottom line: it's not that the states' police powers are truly unlimited, it's just that they are not limited by the federal Constitution except in so far as they violate specific textual limitations (such as the Bill of Rights or the Contracts Clause).

Ilya Somin
Assistant Professor of Law
George Mason University School of Law
3301 Fairfax Dr.
Arlington, VA 22201
ph: 703-993-8069
fax: 703-993-8202
e-mail: isomin at gmu.edu
Website: http://mason.gmu.edu/~isomin/
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