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Congress enacted the Safe Child Care Screening Act. The Act requires every private day-care operator to check a federal website before hiring a worker. Until the federal website is fully operational, the Act requires each county sheriff to receive hiring forms from day-care operators, search local criminal records, fingerprint applicants, and send a written approval or denial to the operator within five business days. The Act provides no federal employees to perform the interim checks and does not reimburse county offices.
A county sheriff refuses to process the forms. The United States sues, arguing that the interim duty is simple, temporary, and necessary to protect children in a national child-care market. The day-care operators do not challenge the requirement that they use the federal website when it becomes available.
How should the court rule on the sheriff's Tenth Amendment defense, and what distinction should it draw between the sheriff duties and the duties imposed on private day-care operators?