Categorical Federalism: Jurisdiction, Gender, and the Globe

The Constitution requires a distinction between what is truly national and what is truly local." 1 These words were used by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 2000 to explain why a statute described by Congress as providing a "civil rights remedy" for victims of gender-biased assaults unconstitutionally trenched on lawmaking arenas belonging to the states.Neither the phrase "truly local" nor "truly national" appears in the United States Constitution.Indeed, the Court's reliance on the modifier "truly" suggested that calling something local or national did not suffice to capture the constitutional distinction claimed-that the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) impermissibly addressed activities definitional of and reserved to state governance.This Essay considers the mode of analysis for which the phrases "truly national" and "truly local" are touchstones.