Should Liberals Fear Federalism?

Lynn A. Baker (Texas), Should Liberals Fear Federalism?, 70 U. Cin. L. Rev. 433 (2002)

Liberals should favor judicial enforcement of states' rights. Two functions: provides "outlier" or "minority" states protection from homogenization (see Raich); mediates the tensions between different individual rights. Thus, judicial enforcement increases diversity, and thus increases aggregate social welfare (there's a missing step there - how does diversity automatically mean better social welfare?).

Gives three reasons why the federalism revolution suffers from an image problem: relations to liberal diversity values isn't understood; historical linkage of states' rights to slavery obscures the issue; and the recent configuration of political forces isn't viewed in historical context.

Not of too much value, I guess, though perhaps as a counterpoint to things like Rubenfeld, i.e. "Not everyone thinks the revolution is bad for liberal values."