“He voted against the bill because he thought it was unconstitutional and if upheld would be a dramatic and dangerous expansion of Congress’s powers under the Commerce Clause.”
Was it upheld by the Court?
Here we are 55-56 years later and his stance against the Civil Rights Act is still used against Republicans.
Goldwater’s stance my have been principled, but it has not been productive.
Interestingly, my liberal constitutional law professor suggested a better constitutional grounding might have been the post-Civil War civil rights amendments. They chose not to go with that theory, however, because there was no case law and they felt they had a better chance under the Commerce Clause.