What did Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis mean when he said that states were laboratories of democracy?

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Laboratories of Democracy
The associate justice Louis Brandeis is popular for the phrase “laboratories of democracy.” Brandeis, by this phrase, meant that a state could serve as a laboratory if its citizens choose to. This would involve trying out novel and economic experiments on the citizens without exposing the rest of the country to risks. The concept of “laboratories of democracy” explains how there exist systems of autonomy within the federal framework whereby local governments and states act as social laboratories. According to Louis Brandeis, “laboratories of democracy” would involve the creation of laws and policies which are then tested at the state level in a process like the scientific method (Taylor, 2015).
Today, an example of a “laboratory of democracy” is the legalization of marijuana in the state of Colorado despite it being illegal federally. This was a provision of the “laboratories of democracy by the U.S constitution on the tenth amendment. The provision states that “all powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people” (Landrith, 2012). This simply allows local governments and states to carry responsibilities of day-day governing which also includes general “police power.”
There being 50 semi-autonomous states, each state in the U.S enacts and tests different policies at the state level without there being any effect on the entire country.

The success of a policy in a particular state can then be expanded to the whole country by acts of Congress at the national level. Such a “laboratory of democracy” act that was successful and expanded to the whole country is the Massachusetts health care reform law in 2006. This law was then passed by the national congress as the affordable care act in 2010 and became a national model.
In conclusion, testing of policies and laws in one state has been a popular practice that has succeeded severally but also could have political risks. The “laboratories of democracy” is a fair practice as the state where the “experiments” takes place has to consent therefore it’s a freedom of choice.

References
Landrith, G. (2012). The Tenth Amendment: Protecting Freedom against Big Government – Frontiers of Freedom. (2018). Ff.org. Retrieved 2 March 2018, from https://www.ff.org/the-tenth-amendment-protecting-freedom-against-big-government/
Taylor, T. (2015). States as the Laboratories of Democracy: An Historical Note. Conversableeconomist.blogspot.co.ke. Retrieved 2 March 2018, from http://conversableeconomist.blogspot.co.ke/2015/08/states-as-laboratories-of-democracy.html