Conditional Spending and the Conditional Offer Puzzle

There are two basic ways to think about the constitutionality of conditional funding offers from the national government to the states: as a localized problem subject to a localized solution or as instantiating a broader problem subject to a more general analysis. The first perspective views conditional spending grants as, essentially, an issue of federalism. The second views them under the rubric of what is sometimes called “the unconstitutional conditions problem.”