On Mar 31, 2012, at 10:50 AM, Jim Devine wrote:
New York TIMES / March 30, 2012 / business section Broccoli Mandates and the Commerce Clause By JAMES B. STEWART No one disputes that Congress can enact laws to carry out powers enumerated in the Constitution or necessary and proper to effectuate those powers. Among the enumerated powers: “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” As the nation’s economy evolved from largely local markets to regional, national and increasingly global ones, the Supreme Court has taken a progressively broader view of Congressional power under the commerce clause, even when individual freedom had to be sacrificed. This included limiting one farmer’s ability to plant wheat during the Depression because his production affected the overall supply and hence had an effect on interstate commerce, and, more recently, upholding a federal ban on homegrown marijuana even if the plant never crossed state lines.
Yes, it seems hard for the Roberts Court to throw out the mandate without at the very least putting into question those monstrous totalitarian precedents. All the more reason to hope that their benighted dislike of Obama leads them, no doubt for the worst of reasons, to strike down that insurance-trust boondoggle.
Shane Mage "Thunderbolt steers all things." Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64
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