Elizabeth Jo

That's the reason of the Supreme Court's interpretation of the 10th Amendment.

Congress can certainly offer funds to the states and incentivize them.

But at some point, if it's too much, it's too coercive, it actually violates a 10th Amendment principle.

So there's a lot of robust principles in the Constitution about saying states have certain prerogatives and rights that the federal government can't.

can't touch.

So there's a whole set of cases here, as you mentioned, that make that clear.

Now, one thing of interest is right after Rene Good was killed, the state of Minnesota filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Trump administration.

arguing that the administration was violating the state's 10th Amendment rights.

And your office filed an amicus or a front of the court brief.

And the whole lawsuit is premised on the idea that this is a big 10th Amendment problem.

And I wonder if you had any thoughts about, like, what exactly is that issue there?

Why is the surge in Minneapolis and in other cities in Minnesota, why was that violating the Constitution?

I wonder if we could turn to another place of constitutional conflict for the states and specifically the abortion context.

You know, after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutionally protected right to an abortion in 2022, states were free to do whatever they wanted.

So some states, of course.

severely restricted or even banned abortion and others provided protections for access to legal abortion.

So for instance, Texas has banned nearly all abortions.

So a medical provider cannot provide a legal abortion inside the state of Texas.

But of course, the availability of abortion medications and telemedicine means that a doctor in New York or California can provide medication to a patient who is living in Texas without ever having set foot in Texas.

Now, some states, including Texas, have decided to go after some of these doctors who have helped women obtain abortions within their states, even though the doctors have never entered Texas or Louisiana.