Whether the Union held together wasn’t as important as the survival of those interests and values it had been created to secure.

But for others, sub-confederations were anathema. They would immediately create rivalries between the republics, perhaps lead to civil war, and invite foreign meddling in American politics. The victory of the Revolution would be lost.

The founders were so concerned about interstate alliances eroding national unity that they sought to prevent any from forming without federal support. They wrote into the new Constitution a provision expressly forbidding their formation — Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3: “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress … enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State …”

Well-known interstate partnerships like the century-old Port Authority of New York and New Jersey exist today only because they received congressional authorization. Some commentators have suggested that alliances like the Western States Pact, formed to handle the coronavirus outbreak, will require federal approval as well.

That is unlikely. According to Virginia v. Tennessee — an 1893 case regarding a longstanding boundary dispute between the two states — interstate compacts require congressional authorization only when they claim new powers for the states that they did not have before or if they intrude on federal prerogatives. Despite President Trump’s claim of “total” authority, the power to lift lockdowns imposed by state governments — or, for that matter, to purchase necessary medical supplies — already rests with the states.

There are practical reasons these regional coalitions should be seen as a positive development for our deadlocked, dysfunctional nation and perhaps even expanded to focus on other issues. The Federal Reserve is already organized by 12 regional districts. The Census Bureau splits the country into nine divisions. The Department of Transportation designates 13 “megaregions,” cross-state territories centered on urban cores and “connected by existing environmental, economic, cultural and infrastructure relationships.” These megaregions may be the building blocks of a new post-pandemic federalism.

Still, they may also produce partisan fissures. Would liberals who today cheer the state formations object to a group of Republican-led Southern states, for instance, forming a league to forge their own policy direction (regarding coronavirus or anything else) under a Democratic presidency?