WASHINGTON (CN) - Reverting to the Clinton Administration's policies on federalism, President Obama has admonished his departments and agencies not to steam-roll over states' rights without a sufficient legal basis, and has asked them to review all federal regulations in the last 10 years intended to preempt state law.
     Quoting U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brandeis, the president asserted that states have the privilege to try "novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country," and that the federal government should stay out of it without legal justification, which includes principles outlined in President Bill Clinton's Executive Order 13132.
     President George W. Bush's administration had scattered preemption provisions throughout federal regulations whether legally justified or not, often aiding businesses in getting around unfavorable state laws. Bush's agencies also included in some introductions to regulations that the agency planned to preempt state law, even when the federal regulation's having precedence over state laws actually was not part of the regulation.

Download Memorandum of May 20, 2009:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/05/28/LeadRegMay2609%20preemption.doc