The protection of individual liberties is a fundamental debate that has raged throughout the history of the United States from its conception to the present day. Even before the U.S. Constitution was established, debates between Federalists and Anti-Federalists embodied the concern over the protection of the individual from the deprivation of their rights by the state.
The United States currently faces a tremendous burden regarding the constant flow of illegal immigrants across its borders. The gridlock that remains in the polity of Washington, DC over the immigration issue, combined with the increasing rates of crime, border killings, gang violence and drug cartel skirmishes is forcing Border States to begin seeking alternative local solutions.
Today, Americans take so many things for granted. As a nation with a limited attention span and a constant need for instant gratification, we conveniently overlook our own heritage and the difficult work of a few statesmen almost two and a half centuries ago. All of us have handled a ten-dollar bill at one time in our lives, but have we ever stopped to understand the complexities and the vision of the man who appears on that bill? The legacy of Alexander Hamilton lives on in many of our political and economic conventions to this day.
Did the rural, localized Anti-Federalists not see the bigger picture of how the colonies as a whole unit would fit in with the rest of the world? Were Federalists really just in it for their own economic and aristocratic self-interests? It is in this turbulent atmosphere that the true revelations of new Federalist theory emerge.
There are several issues to discern. One, given the transpired events within Florida, can the disputes and recounts be undertaken without subjecting either party to violation of equal protection? Two, is it entirely up to the state judiciary to supersede state legislation for election laws, regardless of issue? Three, is it necessary for the Federal judiciary to interfere, given the uniqueness of a Presidential Election?