Bender quoted in article about federal authority

<p><a href="http://apps.law.asu.edu/Apps/Faculty/Faculty.aspx?individual_id=23">Paul Bender</a>, Professor of Law and Dean Emeritus, was quoted in a Feb. 24 Arizona Republic article entitled, “Arizona bills a test of federal government authority,” by reporters Alia Beard Rau, Dan Nowicki and Ken Alltucker.</p><separator></separator><p>The article discussed numerous Arizona state bills that try to reassert the state’s authority or fix problems that the state legislature feels the federal government has not thoroughly addressed.</p><separator></separator><p>Bender argued that these new efforts seem consistent with the state legislature’s willingness to go head-to-head with the federal government over certain issues.</p><separator></separator><p>"You can't have a country if the component parts of the country feel that they can disregard the central law when they don't like it," Bender said. "Being part of the system means that while you are going to disagree with things that the central government says, that doesn't mean you're free to disregard them. Because if every state felt free to disregard federal law, we wouldn't have a country anymore."</p><separator></separator><p>To read the entire article, click <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/02/24/20110224arizona-bills… teaches courses on U.S. and Arizona constitutional law. He has written extensively about constitutional law, intellectual property and Indian law, and is co-author of the two-volume casebook/treatise, Political and Civil Rights in the United States. Bender has argued more than 20 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and actively participates in constitutional litigation in federal and state courts.</p><separator></separator><p>Staci McCabe, <a href="mailto:Staci.McCabe@asu.edu">Staci.McCabe@asu.edu</a><br />(480) 965-8702<br />Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law</p>