| The pandemic is providing a crash course in federalism. Governors across the U.S. have taken command in responding to the virus, shutting down their economies, wrangling for medical supplies in what some have described as a Wild West marketplace, and assuming the role of calming presence for their people during a historic health calamity. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo has conducted daily briefings that go deep on data while also providing snippets of humanity. On Monday, he described his daughters groaning when he said that efforts to contain the pandemic could drag on another year and a half, until a vaccine is found. Some of the assertiveness appears to be chafing President Donald Trump. In a tweet Monday, Trump said that he would be in charge of determining when states reopen for business, not their governors. "A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!" Trump said.  Governor Cuomo Photographer: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images North America But the governors aren't waiting for an edict from the president; Cuomo and a cluster of other states in the northeastern U.S. are working on plans to coordinate the reopening of schools and businesses. (California, Oregon and Washington plan a similar joint approach.) Pennsylvania's Tom Wolf said the states must "restore the sense of hope that has been taken away from us." Rhode Island's Gina Raimondo said she doesn't want people out of work longer than necessary. Working together makes the most sense, said Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont. Cuomo warned that states and cities going it alone would be "mayhem." The division of powers between the U.S. government and the states dates to the country's origins, when wariness about centralized government ran high. The 10th Amendment, part of the original Bill of Rights written by the federalist James Madison, says that powers not delegated to the federal government nor prohibited by the Constitution belong to the states and to the people. Trump's declaration that he alone will decide when the country reopens runs counter to one of the nation's founding documents. Of course, behind the dispute, and the decisions by the states to form their alliances, is a deeper reality—that none of the states can act effectively in isolation in the face of a global pandemic. They will need to be united. The federal government can bind them, or be left by the way.—Tim Annett | 
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