Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety · ¶126

Under the Articles of Confederation, the power to tax remained with the States. See Art. VIII; see also Art. II. This arrangement left the Federal Government largely dependent upon the States, eager for their cooperation but struggling to secure it. D. Spencer, Sanctuary Cities and the Power of the Purse: An Executive Dole Test, 106 Iowa L. Rev. 1209, 1218 (2021). Thus, one major motivation for the new Constitution was to give the Federal Government the tools “to better incentivize states to work collectively for the good of the entire Union.” Ibid. Granting Congress the power to tax allowed the Federal Government to amass the resources it needed to dangle those incentives. And granting Congress the power to spend allowed the Federal Government to follow through.

slip opinion, revised 6/28/26
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