Is Federalism a Political Question? An Application of the Marshallian Framework to Garcia

Abstract

In Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985) the Supreme Court relegated the matter of the wages and hours of local government employees to the national political process as though the issue were a political question. More importantly, the Court left the determination of whether the issue required national political resolution up to Congress. This article applies some of the writings of John Marshall to the Garcia case in order to ascertain whether national political resolution of the issue was appropriate. Under Marshall's framework, matters which involve the enumerated powers of Congress or the implied powers of Congress are political issues. However, in contrast to the holding in Garcia, the question of whether a particular issueinvolves an enumerated or an implied power is a matter appropriate for judicial scrutiny.