Legal Memorandum: Federalism
As much as possible, in this course, you’ll be completing work that you might actually do as a paralegal. For this assignment, you’ll be completing a memorandum of law. Again, this is the sort of task you might actually do at a law firm.
The doctrines of federalism and separation of powers prohibit the federal government from interfering with states where there is no direct connection to a constitutionally delegated federal power. As a result, attempts at federal gun control were found unconstitutional in the cases of United States v. Lopez and Printz v. United States.
For this assignment, write a 1-2 page memorandum to your managing attorney (your instructor) that addresses the following issues:
- Assuming that the court’s interpretation of the law was accurate, do you believe that the state’s power to regulate in these matters should outweigh the federal government’s right to do so? What, if anything, should be done?
- Agencies can be characterized as being either executive agencies or independent agencies. How do they differ and, from your standpoint, which is preferable in terms of maintaining agency focus and controlling the actions of the agency?
Your memorandum should be “Law Office Ready” and include all of the required elements of a memorandum. See the Everest Law Office Memorandum
document in the Legal Writing Resources section under Course Home if you need a template.
