ABSTRACT
Robert Bork, nominated in 1987 by President Reagan for a seat on the Supreme Court, argues that federalism is an important means to protect individual liberty and freedom. Bork argues that indeed federalism is the Constitution’s most important protector of an individual’s freedom and that it has been of special value to African Americans in their quest for freedom. With respect to African Americans, Bork writes,
People who found state regulations oppressive could vote with their feet and in massive numbers they did. Blacks engaged in the great migration at a time when southern states blatantly discriminated. . . . [O]f course this freedom to escape came at a price. But if another state allows you the liberty you value, you can move there and the choice is yours alone, not dependent on those who made the Constitution.1
