Labor and the Federal System

Abstract

Mr. Justice Frankfurter was alone in dissent and wrong in conclusion when he wrote this wise and provocative paragraph: The various aspects in which this problem [of accommodating state and federal laws] comes before the Court are seldom easy of solution. Decisions ultimately depend on judgment in balancing overriding considerations making for the requirement of an exclusive nation-wide regime in a particular field of legal control and respect for the allowable area within which the forty-eight States may enforce their diverse notions of policy. Evoked by these words is the image of the judge placing weights on both sides of the law's mythical scale: so many for federal purposes; so many for state interest. It is to be sure a hackneyed image (it is mine, not the Justice's) but it suggests the delicate nature of an important judicial task.