States’ Rights and Civil Rights: Barry Goldwater, Bill Buckley, Richard Nixon, and Southern Realignment

by Sean Beienburg

Abstract

A striking number of scholars, pundits, and practitioners have begun to suggest that contemporary progressives might find value in federalism or even progressive’ states’ rights. This is especially as elements of the right have turned against constitutional proceduralism and constraint—as Ken Kersch increasingly lamented.

Kersch urged those suggesting a revivification of federalism to grapple with the relationship between federalism and massive resistance. He noted that such defenders of federalism could indeed point to a broad legacy of decentralist thought in the American political tradition, including a pre-New Deal streak of a distinctively progressive federalism. But, he asked, had the 1950s and 1960s irrevocably tainted federalism and maybe even constitutional discourse more broadly?