Attribution: Paul Goyette from Chicago, USA, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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By Geoff Carter
During the constitutional conventions that created the foundation of our democracy, the founders sought to balance the powers of a strong central government (like the one they had just gained independence from) and the rights and powers of regional, or state, governments. The result became known as federalism, which is defined as “the balance of power between the different levels of government. The separation of powers divides power between the branches (executive, legislative, and judicial) “horizontally.” Meanwhile, federalism divides power “vertically” between the national and individual state governments (Find Law)”.
We used to see the “checks and balances” between the three branches of federal government as a matter of course. According to the Constitution, the Supreme Court was (theoretically, at least) to interpret and modify laws passed by Congress. They live to check and balance. And of course, the president can veto any bill passed by Congress—check—which can be overridden by a two-thirds majority in Congress. Checkmate.
Before the ascension of Donald Trump, these mechanisms worked quite well. When President Nixon attempted to abort the DOJ investigation of the Watergate coverup, Congress stepped in and ultimately forced his resignation. Ah, those were the days.
During the Depression, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt attempted to push through the National Recovery Act stabilize the economy. In Schechter Poultry Company -v- United States, the Supreme Court ruled that the NRA granted the executive branch legislative powers, so they invalidated the act.
Federalism between the states and the federal systems of government was also designed to maintain a balance of power has generally worked well enough during the two hundred and fifty years of our country’s existence. In the 1960’s, during the turbulence of the Civil Rights movement, the Kennedy Administration ordered federal troops to go into Mississippi to enforce the federal desegregation law. States can sue the federal government for overstepping the bounds of their delegated powers, frequently citing the Tenth Amendment.
In fact, federalism has worked quite well—until recently. The equity of powers guaranteed by the Constitution has kept everyone honest (at least relatively)—up until now—but these checks and balances at the heart of our government are at risk today. The executive branch of the federal government under President Trump has been—to put it lightly—overstepping its bounds. This administration has been consistently and relentlessly breaking the law and abusing its powers. With the help of the conservative majority of the Supreme Court, who in July of 2024 gave the president virtual immunity from criminal prosecution for actions during his term as president, Trump has used this free pass to wreak havoc on the American people and governmental institutions.
The president has illegally withheld federal funds from universities, law firms, and businesses. According to the Constitution, Congress has the power of the purse, not the president, and with a stacked Supreme Court and a cowed Congress, Trump has (except for lower-level branches of some federal courts), faced little or no resistance from the other branches of the federal government. So someone else needed to stop him.
When Trump decided to federalize and deploy the National Guard into Los Angeles to “keep order”—a shocking violation of constitutional law—it was not Congress, but the State of California that stood up to him. California Governor Gavin Newsom waged a two-pronged campaign of legal actions and public condemnation which eventually forced Trump to relinquish control over the Guard and remove them. It worked.
In Illinois, after Trump’s ICE troops had attacked Chicago citizens, teargassing protestors and even terrorizing children, it was Governor Pritzker who told him to get out. He sued the federal government and won. After the Supreme Court, of all people, upheld in a 6-3 ruling that Trump had no authority to deploy the National Guard into Illinois.
Most recently, the administration has flooded the state of Minnesota with ICE agents, who, in a full-throated effort to terrorize and silence the people, have been raiding schools, ramming cars, and beating those who would dare stand against them. This is straight out of the authoritarian playbook; Trump has co-opted a federal agency and is in the process of turning it into his private police force.
Part of Trumps Big Beautiful Bill allocated over $75 billion dollars to ICE, which, according to The Brennan Center for Justice was nearly triple the agency’s budget for 2024. The Brennan report states the ICE budget “…is more than the annual expenditures on police by state and local governments in all 50 states and the District of Columbia combined” and included provisions to hire 10,000 more agents (The Brennan Center for Justice). In their haste to fill American streets with Trump’s private army, hiring standards and training practices have been curtailed or completely disregarded. The result has been a mob of masked armed thugs roaming the streets arresting, detaining, beating, and terrorizing our citizens without even a pretense of due process. They have broken into homes without warrants, arrested citizens without cause, executed raids in Home Depot parking lots, and crashed their vehicles into the cars of their victims. They are, in a word, running rogue, breaking laws without fear of retribution.
These abuses culminated in the shooting death of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother who was protesting ICE’s presence in her Minneapolis. Despite claims from the administration that Ms. Good was a “domestic terrorist” and was attempting to run down an ICE agent with her car, videotapes show that ICE Officer John Ross cold-bloodedly executed her as she attempted to drive away.
The country was outraged. Spontaneous demonstrations sprang up all over the country. Since the Congress and the conservative majority of the Supreme Court have been too feckless to stand up to this barbarism, the people have taken it upon themselves to fight for their rights.
During the ICE occupation of Chicago, citizen activists had devised a network designed to educate their immigrant neighbors. ICE agents were besieged by whistle-blowing protestors, massive demonstrations, dozens recording their every move on smartphones, and citizen groups who walked children to schools.
In Minneapolis, similar activists have formed human chains around schools to prevent agents from entering and to protect children from arrest. They have escalated efforts to bring ICE agents to account, documenting dozens of instances of brutality and abuse.
The State of Minnesota is also fighting back. Minneapolis mayor told ICE to “get the f… out of our city” and local law enforcement authorities—realizing that the federal investigation of Good’s murder is bogus—have pledged to get to the truth of the matter and bring state charges.
Some of the safeguards and guardrails the framers of the U.S. Constitution built into our democracy have been breached. Even though, congress has been emasculated and intimidated by Trump (although it recently has shown signs of waking up) and the Supreme Court has been stacked with a conservative majority, we have not retreated.
Federalism’s guarantee of states’ rights has allowed the people to fight back. Leaders like Governors Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, and Kathy Hochul have refused to concede an inch to Donald Trump. Their courage and integrity have been exemplary.
But our greatest defense is ourselves. Those who are willing to resist ICE and to fight for everyone’s freedom, not those who wear red hats and fly fancy flags, are the true patriots. This is what Renee Good was doing when she was brutally assassinated. She was a patriot, she is a hero, and she is a paragon of what every American could and should be.
Notes
- https://www.annenbergclassroom.org/timeline_event/key-new-deal-legislation-ruled-unconstitutional/#:~:text=1935,with%20the%20states’%20economic%20activities
- https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/12/31/federal-court-finally-ends-illegal-federalization-of-national-guard-after-trump-gives-up-governor-newsom-directs-leadership-to-quickly-send-soldiers-home-to-families/
- https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/12/supreme-court-rejects-trumps-effort-to-deploy-national-guard-in-illinois/
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ice-funding-big-beautiful-bill-trump-deportations/#
- https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/big-budget-act-creates-deportation-industrial-complex
- https://constitution.findlaw.com/federalism-and-the-u-s-constitution.html
- https://www.npr.org/2023/08/16/1190767610/ice-detention-immigration-government-inspectors-barbaric-negligent-conditions#:~:text=%22There%20is%20no%20justifiable%20correctional,and%20independent%20oversight%20over%20ICE.%22
- https://www.aclu.org/issues/immigrants-rights/ice-and-border-patrol-abuses
- https://www.tpr.org/2025-09-21/in-chicago-ice-actions-are-triggering-a-new-wave-of-political-activism