How did Printz v. United States limit federal power over state and local law-enforcement agencies?

In the 1997 case Printz v. United States, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion, which limited federal power by ruling that the federal government could not compel state and local law-enforcement agencies to perform background checks on prospective gun owners.2

This decision specifically addressed a provision of the Brady Law, which had originally mandated that local officials conduct these checks during a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases. By striking down this requirement, the Supreme Court affirmed principles of state sovereignty and limited the extent to which the federal government could commandeer state resources to execute federal regulatory programs. Scalia viewed this as a necessary constitutional constraint, consistent with his commitment to states’ rights and his broader judicial philosophy of limiting federal overreach.12