The Republican Party’s commitment to federalism has taken an interesting new turn: State governments under GOP control have been passing legislation to prohibit cities and counties from adopting minimum wages that would rise above the state level.

States have long been able to set their minimum wages above the federal rate, currently $7.25 an hour, and 29 currently do that, as does the District of Columbia. In recent years, when minimum wage activists have been unable to get statehouses to go along with increases, they have turned to local governments and had some notable successes. That has prompted some GOP-led states to nullify those efforts.