By way of disclaimer, today’s Law Decoded is going to be especially America-centric. Writing to you from the ghastly swamp that is Washington, D.C., I generally try to keep these newsletters more globally minded, displeased as I am with how often the news cycle acts like this town is the center of the solar system.
Thematically, however, the relationship between the capital and the rest of the country is central to this week’s news. U.S. federalism is a critical feature of this remarkably frustrating country. The back-and-forth between federal and state power is one of the defining tensions of these United States.