Bhagwat on Cooper v. Aaron

Ash Bhagwat has published a symposium piece called, Cooper v. Aaron and the Faces of Federalism, 52 St. Louis U. L. J. 1087 (2008). Ash argues that American society has learned the wrong lesson from Cooper -- i.e., that it is always wrong and unconstitutional to resist the implementation of federal law or the Constitution. He brings up several examples of situations where many would not consider active resistance illegitimate, as with sanctuary cities, medical marijuana, and the fugitive slave laws. Ultimately, he argues, what made the resistance in Cooper wrong was "the fact that they were threatening children with violence, and all in the name of defending an evil system of racial segregation."