Garcia v. San Antonio

The federalist system, under judicial review, should be the probe of “national supremacy against nullification or usurpation of individual states.” Drawing a line in the sand, the Supreme Court can decide where the federal government reigns and where the state and local government rules. When the Supreme Court fails to operate on this front, there may be overlapping reigns that bring about inefficiency and confusion. However, "it's possible that through a tyranny of small decisions, we could make a nightmare society," says Harvard Law School Professor Laurence H. Tribe. One such decision might be the decision in Garcia v. The San Antonio Transit Authority: where the decision to extend rights provided by the Fair Labor Standards Act (minimum wage and overtime pay) to employees of state and local governments. Because of this decision, states are protected by the procedural safeguards of federalism rather than placing the states into a realm of their own. “The extent to which the structure of the Federal Government itself was relied on to insulate the interests of the States is evident in the views of the Framers,” begins the argument that the states themselves are protected through representation in the federal government rather than actual protections placed into the constitution.