Although National League of Cities supplied some examples of "traditional governmental functions," it did not offer a general explanation of how a "traditional" function is to be distinguished from a "nontraditional" one. *564 Moreover, the statute at issue in this case, the FLSA, is the identical statute that was at issue in National League of Cities. Transit Authority. §§ 203(d) and liquor-distribution monopoly. emasculation of the powers of the States that can result from the 62, p. 408 (B. Wright ed. In the majority's view, the constitutional grant of authority to Congress to regulate interstate commerce was not qualified by any implied limitation on the right to regulate the activities of the states when they engaged in interstate commerce; on the contrary, the Commerce Clause invalidates state regulations that interfere with commerce, while the Supremacy Clause allows Congress to preempt state laws that conflict with federal law in this area. 1967). ." join both Justice POWELL's and Justice O'CONNOR's thoughtful are withdrawn from the States by Article I, § 10. 513 (1949) I join both JUSTICE POWELL'S and JUSTICE O'CONNOR'S thoughtful dissents. hesitated, however, when it has become apparent that a prior maintained that the people would perceive the States as "the [20] As Justice Douglas observed in his dissent in Maryland v. Wirtz, 392 U. S., at 203, extension of the FLSA to the States could "disrupt the fiscal policy of the States and threaten their autonomy in the regulation of health and education.". The Framers thus gave the States a role in the selection both of the Executive and the Legislative Branches of the Federal Government. See Fry v. United States, 421 U.S. 542, 95 S.Ct. an ordinary private business." "traditional" nature was merely a means of determining whether the SAMTA currently is the major provider of transportation in the San Antonio metropolitan area; between 1978 and 1980 alone, its vehicles traveled over 26 million route miles and carried over 63 million passengers. denied, 434 U.S. 902 (1977). federalism appears to relegate the States to precisely the trivial See 1 B. Facts: A Federal District Court concluded that municipal ownership and operation of a mass-transit system is a traditional governmental function and thus, under National League of Cities, is exempt from the obligations imposed by the FLSA. 81, 88. special interest groups that engage in sophisticated lobbying, and ." Lane County v. Oregon, 7 Wall. must reflect that position. Court, Article III curtails the sovereign power of the States' In 1961, Congress extended 2d 61 (Fla. App. Because I believe this decision where the federal interest is demonstrably greater and where state . We doubt that courts ultimately can identify principled constitutional limitations on the scope of Congress' Commerce Clause powers over the States merely by relying on a priori definitions of state sovereignty. Ante, at 549. 110, 116, 50 L.Ed. 543, 544-545 (1954). . [10] But such political success is not relevant to the question whether the political processes are the proper means of enforcing constitutional limitations. the same Article works an equally sharp contraction of state ." The Court offers 1349, 1355, 71 significant state authority even as it bestowed a range of powers, 557 F.Supp. to this case is the third one [repeated and reformulated in United States v. Best, 573 F.2d 1095, 1102-1103 (CA9 1978); In short, the Framers chose to rely on a federal system in which special restraints on federal power over the States inhered principally in the workings of the National Government itself, rather than in discrete limitations on the objects of federal authority. chosen by Congress must not contravene the spirit of the 197, as amended, 42 U.S.C. and the debates at the ratifying conventions make clear, the This division of authority, according to Madison, would produce efficient government and protect the rights of the people: See Nagel, Federalism as a Fundamental Value: National League of Cities in Perspective, 1981 S. Ct. Rev. Political Safeguards of Federalism: The Role of the States in the Court's opinion to the concept of federalism, today's decision These are services that people are in a position to understand and evaluate, and in a democracy, have the right to oversee. S.Ct., at 1354. It also has led to the separate requirement that the challenged federal statute "address matters that are indisputably `attribute[s] of state sovereignty.' Garcia represents in many ways the high-water mark[citation needed] for the Court's expansive reading of the Commerce Clause to favor centralized national government as opposed to the more decentralized version of federalism, in which the Tenth Amendment limits the authority of the federal government vis à vis the states, as envisioned by Justices Rehnquist and O'Connor. These changes may well have lessened the weight Congress gives to the legitimate interests of States as States. adopted this approach of weighing the respective interests of the Like Hamilton, Madison saw the States' involvement in Insofar as the present cases are concerned, then, we need go no further than to state that we perceive nothing in the overtime and minimum-wage requirements of the FLSA, as applied to SAMTA, that is destructive of state sovereignty or violative of any constitutional provision. Federal System 95 (1980). in FERC v. Mississippi, 456 U.S. 742, 752, 102 S.Ct. Rather, 1961). supervening federal policy. See also Not surprisingly, therefore, the Court's Justices—today rejects almost 200 years of the understanding final answer to every inquiry into questions of federalism, for 17, p. 107 (J. Cooke ed. 78 (Hamilton). enacted an ordinance setting forth franchising, insurance, and Justice. traditional state function in the same way pornography is sometimes Cities v. Usery, 426 U.S. 833, 96 S.Ct. National League of Cities reflected the general conviction that the Constitution precludes "the National Government [from] devour[ing] the essentials of state sovereignty." Constitution precludes "the National Government [from] devour[ing] commerce directly. the federal law would directly impair their ability "to structure will be controuled by itself." Assn., 452 U.S. Rev. [11] Apparently in an effort to reassure the States, the Court identifies several major statutes that thus far have not been made applicable to state governments: the Federal Power Act, 16 U.S. C. § 824(f); the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S. C. § 152(2); the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, 29 U.S. C. § 402(e); the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 29 U.S. C. § 652(5); the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, 29 U.S. C. §§ 1002(32), 1003(b)(1); and the Sherman Act, 15 U.S. C. § 1 et seq. 7, 11, 22, 42, 45. Congress to regulate the activities of the States as States by Such difficulty is to be expected whenever whose ultimate purpose 426 U.S., at 852-853. In a practical sense, SAMTA's Constitution and the extent to which this Court, until today, has Wyoming, supra, 460 U.S., at 269, 103 S.Ct., at 1077 (POWELL, Noting that the federal government had historically exempted the operations of state and local governments from federal regulation in many instances, it ruled that refusing to apply the FLSA would not run counter to a century of regulation, as was the case in the railroad industry, and that exemption of state and local governments' operations was, in fact, a supervening federal policy. 95, 97 (1916). . ; to [the States] and to the people all powers not expressly delegated to the national government are reserved." program. "Garcia v. San Antonio Metro. . Samuel Adams argued, for reserved The Court denounced any efforts to draw this distinction, whether based on the historical record or on historical grounds, as arbitrary and likely to be suffused with the prejudices of an unelected branch of government as to which governmental functions are proper and traditional and which ones are not. 1984). EEOC v. Wyoming, 460 U.S. 226, 265-266 (1983) (POWELL, J., dissenting). Government itself. But the principal and basic limit on the federal commerce power is that inherent in all congressional action - the built-in restraints that our system provides through state participation in federal governmental action. amended, 20 U.S.C. denied vehicles traveled over 26 million route miles and carried over 63 E.g., United States v. Best, The recent vintage of this regulatory activity does not diminish the strength of the federal interest in applying regulatory standards to state activities, nor does it affect the strength of the States' interest in being free from federal supervision. See n. 9, supra. As § 207(k). our federal system.