Replies

If this decision is conservative, I guess Justice Thomas is a liberal now:

Thomas said the ruling was so broad "the federal government may now regulate quilting bees, clothes drives and potluck suppers throughout the 50 states."

The case was hatched when Monson's backyard crop of six marijuana plants was seized by federal agents in 2002. They claimed protection under the Constitution, which says Congress may pass laws regulating a state's economic activity so long as it involves "interstate commerce" that crosses state borders.

The case is Gonzales v. Raich, 03-1454.

The ruling in Gonzales v. Raich is available at:
http://wid.ap.org/documents/scotus/050606raich.pdf

If this decision is conservative, I guess Justice Thomas is a liberal now

Someone earlier today was asking if Thomas was a pothead. Duh. Lotta folks just can't get past the weed aspect long enough to recognize what this case is actually about.

"the federal government may now regulate quilting bees, clothes drives and potluck suppers throughout the 50 states."

Spot on.

This ruling from the highest court is the death of the 9th Circuit Court's ruling in US vs. Stewart, as I see it, based upon precisely the same arguments about the jurisdiction of the US Commerce Clause. Even the Wickard vs. Filburn ruling from 1942 is mentioned in both cases.

Justice Thomas, dissenting in today's medical marijuana ruling: "[The defendants] use marijuana that has never been bought or sold, that has never crossed state lines, and has no demonstrable effect on the national market for marijuana. If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually everything --- and the Federal government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers."

US vs. Stewart 02-10318 (2003): "... The district court ruled against Stewart’s Commerce Clause argument, reasoning that “the parts, at least, moved in inter-state commerce.” Indeed, some of the machinegun parts did move in interstate commerce. At some level, of course, everything we own is composed of something that once traveled in commerce. This cannot mean that everything is subject to federal regulation under the Commerce Clause, else that constitutional limitation would be entirely meaning-less. As Lopez reminds us, Congress’s power has limits, and we must be mindful of those limits so as not to “ ‘obliterate the distinction between what is national and what is local and create a completely centralized government.’..."

The defendants in the medical marijuana ruling had an even better case than Stewart did: Their marijuana required no construction materials whatsoever.

I think some posters on FR are of the mindset "Embrace Statism and help screw over the hippies!" -- just another addition to the teetering pile of examples on how FreeRepublic has changed radically over the years from it's original intent.

We can't hate the Libertarians this much as to act so stupidly, can we?