South Dakota v. Dole

Although the Twenty-first Amendment has not often been challenged in the Supreme Court, South Dakota v. Dole addressed other, perennial issues such as spending power, the relative authority of the federal government and that of the states, and the line between inducement and encouragement. Perhaps most significant was the last point, because it related to questions of how or whether Congress may financially reward behavior it deemed beneficial, or withhold such rewards in the face of behavior it wanted to discourage.