Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1984
Abstract
There is little doubt that in order to best fulfill public policy goals,
coordination between the federal and state governments is
desirable.' Coordination has been sought over the years, for example,
by federal grants-in-aid, and the enactment of federal laws which are
dependent upon state law. One technique which has been employed
by the states to further coordinate state and federal law is incorporation
of federal law into state law. Although it is beyond question that
there is no constitutional problem when a state legislature adopts
existing federal law or regulations: constitutional questions do arise
when a state attempts to adopt future federal laws or regulations. The
regional reporters are replete with cases stating that statutes which
incorporate future federal law are unconstitutional because they impermissably
delegate legislative power from the state legislatures to the
federal government. The basic rationale of these cases is that by
incorporating future federal law, the state legislatures are abdicating
their legislative power because they maintain no control over Congress
or any federal agency.
The purpose of this article is to discuss state adoption of future
federal law. After presenting a brief introduction to the delegation
doctrine, the article will analyze cases from various states which have
addressed challenges on delegation grounds to state statutes which
attempt to adopt future federal law. This analysis will show that statements
such as that made by one state court that "the courts have
uniformly and without deviation held that any attempt by the legislature
to incorporate into our law future [federal] regulations is an
unconstitutional delegation" is misleadingly broad in that they suggest
that states can never incorporate future federal law. The article will
then attempt to provide a framework which differs from the one
usually employed by courts in analyzing this issue. Finally, the article
will apply this approach to a few substantive areas where states have
attempted to adopt future federal law.
Recommended Citation
Arnold Rochvarg,
State Adoption of Federal Law - Legislative Abdication or Reasoned Policymaking?,
(1984).
Available at:
https://scholarworks.law.ubalt.edu/all_fac/870