How California's minimum wage hike experiment could benefit the rest of America

Federalism has its advantages

The minimum slog.
(Image credit: (Benjamin Rondel/CORBIS))

One of federalism's greatest virtues is that it permits states to act as laboratories of democracy. Want to see if social conservatives are right about same-sex marriage undermining the institution of marriage more generally? Then allow some states to legalize same-sex marriage while others ban it and wait for the results over the coming years and decades.

With public opinion rapidly shifting in favor of gay marriage in many places, judges knocking down the remaining legal obstacles to it in others, and the Supreme Court seemingly poised to settle the matter at the national level, it looks like a federalist experiment on the issue isn't in the cards.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.