One example from a few years back was DOMA, which said that the federal government couldn't recognise same-sex marriages even if a state performed them (as they started to do a few years later).
Another is No Child Left Behind, a Republican-sponsored measure (though like DOMA it did receive bipartisan support) that forced a lot of specific educational policy on various states that weren't very happy about it, but acceded because the alternative was federal defunding.
Another is various efforts involving abortion and, lately, contraception; I hesitate to get too deep on specifics lest I derail the thread, but right-wing efforts there have not been confined to the state level. (Nor have left-wing efforts, obviously.)
Another is No Child Left Behind, a Republican-sponsored measure (though like DOMA it did receive bipartisan support) that forced a lot of specific educational policy on various states that weren't very happy about it, but acceded because the alternative was federal defunding.
Another is various efforts involving abortion and, lately, contraception; I hesitate to get too deep on specifics lest I derail the thread, but right-wing efforts there have not been confined to the state level. (Nor have left-wing efforts, obviously.)