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The concept of “states’ rights” has long been a rallying cry of American conservatives seeking to hold back progress ranging from civil rights to gun control and environmental regulation. Now, progressive scholars and activists describe what state governments can do to check an increasingly authoritarian federal government. At a time when there is a widespread recognition of a need for ways to check the current presidential administration, the authors of these essays provide just that.
Contributors with expertise and practical experience on a wide range of topics explain in brief, accessible chapters the powers reserved to the states in areas such as election law, immigration enforcement, prosecuting federal officials, the state tax power, personal-data control, free speech, and more. They explain, for example, the “anti-commandeering rule” that allows states to resist federal overreach, and outline novel ways state law can be used to throw sand in the gears of illegal federal enforcement actions. They describe how doctrines created by conservatives to empower state governments can be used to stop repressive actions by the federal government.
In a book that will inspire and direct all manner of local initiatives, Fight Back offers the road map for meaningful resistance the country has been waiting for.
Aziz Z. Huq is Professor of Law and Herbert and Marjorie Fried Teaching Scholar at the University of Chicago School of Law. He has worked as associate counsel and then as director of the Liberty and National Security Project of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, litigating cases in the U.S. Courts of Appeals and the Supreme Court. He has also been a senior consultant analyst for the International Crisis Group, researching constitutional design and implementation in Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka. He previously clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He lives in Chicago.
Erwin Chemerinsky is the dean of Berkeley Law School and the author of numerous books on the Constitution. He is a former president of the Association of American Law Schools, and in 2024, National Jurist magazine named him as the most influential person in legal education in the United States. The co-editor (with Aziz Huq) of Fight Back (The New Press), he lives in Berkeley, California.