PLSC 2306 Assignment 4
Federalism-a South Dakota case
South Dakota’s legal drinking age was 19 years old. Young people from neighboring states with higher drinking ages would drive to South Dakota to buy beer. Selling beer was also profitable for small businesses so that there were many business supporters of the current state drinking age.
Congress then passed a law requiring all states wanting money from the United States government to help take care of their portions of interstates to raise their drinking ages to 21. If states did not raise their drinking ages, they would lose five (5) percent of their federal highway funding.
The U. S. Government argued that different drinking ages across states created an “incentive to drink and drive,” creating danger on the nation’s interstate highways.
Congress is charged with promoting the general welfare of the country, which in this case means uniform state drinking laws.
States are not forced to take federal money or to obey this law. This federal law was simply to encourage all states to raise their drinking ages.
If you were a member of the U. S. Supreme Court would you rule for South Dakota or the United States government? And why?
