4 ms·
It is one of the greatest blunders of the constitution. Everything is interstate commerce. Yes and yes. Unfortunately that ship sailed a long long time ago.
by PhantomGremlin 7y ago
It is one of the greatest blunders of the constitution.
Everything is interstate commerce.
Yes and yes. Unfortunately that ship sailed a long long time ago.
E.g. in 1942 the US Supreme Court held in a unanimous opinion that a farmer growing wheat to feed his own animals on his own farm could be regulated as interstate commerce.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn
More than 50 years later, the Court walked that back, very slightly. But the decision in 1995 was 5-4. This more recent decision would doubtlessly upset many on HN once they learn that it limited the ability of the US government to ban possession of handguns near schools.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Lopez https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Lopez
A more recent evolution of this (as Matt Levine likes to frequently point out) is "everything is securities fraud".
- derefr 7y ago> It limited the ability of the US government to ban possession of handguns near schools. Only in the same sense that the US government is limited in its ability to declare that marijuana is illegal when individual states consider it legal, no? In both cases, it's because the enforcement of any such law would happen at the state (or municipal) level, so in practice the state gets to decide whether the practice is de-facto illegal or de-facto legal. (Where by "de-facto legal" I mean "legal unless you did it in front of a federal agent, which is a vanishingly rare circumstance to be in.")