States’ Rights

There’s a conversation going on around the blogs about the sometimes controversial term “states’ rights.” See Grits for Breakfast’s response to a Bob Herbert article touted by Big Tent Democrat and responses by Jeralyn Merritt and then Alex.
I’ll add my quick two cents.
First cent: At a time when federal authoritarianism is ascendant, I’ll take the pitfalls of states’ rights any day. It’s much easier to move to another state for justice than another country.
Second cent:

‹It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.Š

– Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis