Alex Mulder
Research Mentor: Samuel Erman
Mentor Department: NA, Law
Author(s): Alex Mulder
Session: Session 4 (1:00 PM – 1:50 PM)
Presentation Type: Poster 101
Abstract
There has always been a thin line between state and federal power. Although enumerated in the founding documents of the United States, the federal government has not been shy in taking power that was interpreted originally as things written in the Constitution, but that was subsequently expanded after the Civil War. In so doing, Congress elaborated upon a category of authority called “plenary powers,†or things that fully belong to Congress’ jurisdiction. One major evaluation included in this work is how Congress expands its power by acting in domains that aren’t clearly belonging to Congressional jurisdiction. If that idea isn’t unsettling enough, the aftermath of what Congress does should be. This project analyzes the abuses of Congress vis-a-vis the self-proclaimed “powers inherent in sovereignty.†These abuses include, but are not limited to, a denigration of immigrants and other colonial subjects, a reproduction of the American economy based on things like legal tender, and the potentially frightening advances Congress makes parallel to anti-Black racism in America.
