Pubdate: Thu, 09 Jun 2005
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2005 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Steve Chapman
Note: Steve Chapman is a member of the Tribune's editorial board.
Note: The decision is on line in various formats here 
http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-1454.ZS.html and as a 79 
page .pdf file here http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/04pdf/03-1454.pdf
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Raich (Gonzales v. Raich )

DAZED AND CONFUSED ABOUT FEDERAL POWER

The chief author of our Constitution, James Madison, had little
patience for those who accused him and his allies of trying to create
a large, intrusive federal government. In 1788 he noted pointedly that
the "powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal
government are few and defined." Those of the states, by contrast,
"are numerous and indefinite."

This week, addressing the same question, the Supreme Court said,
"James who?"

In recent years, the justices had flirted with the idea of restoring
to the states some of the authority they once exercised. After the
court's half-century love affair with centralization, that came as a
shock to almost everyone. But the new romance didn't last.

The court's decision to uphold the federal government's ban on medical
marijuana is a victory for those who think the federal government
should be free to poke its snout anywhere it wants--an approach,
conservatives should note, consistently favored by the Bush
administration. In this instance, that policy means punishing
seriously ill people whose doctors have recommended the therapeutic
use of marijuana, under regulations established by the state of California.

Under California law, patients may obtain and use marijuana under a
physician's suggestion. But that didn't stop federal drug agents from
going after Diane Monson. They confiscated six cannabis plants she had
grown to treat the intense pain caused by her spinal disease.

She, however, was seized by the idea that California law should count
for something in California. Monson and a fellow patient filed a
lawsuit arguing that their pot use was purely a state matter, lying
beyond the reach of the federal government.

For a long time, that sort of claim was routinely laughed out of
court. Starting in the 1930s, the court waved through a long parade of
federal laws and regulations going well beyond what was allowed
before. The federal government was now free to intrude into all sorts
of spheres, the court explained, because of its power to regulate
interstate commerce.

It devised this theory mainly because it wanted a way to sanction
Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal--not because the conclusion had any
legal basis. The power to regulate interstate commerce, when written
into the Constitution, had a far more modest purpose.

Under the Articles of Confederation, states could erect trade barriers
to protect home industries from competitors in other states, to the
detriment of national prosperity. So when the time came to draft a new
Constitution, the delegates wanted to create a national free-trade
zone. Hence they gave Congress authority to "regulate commerce ...
among the several states."

That's "among," not "within." Clearly the feds had some latitude to
address economic matters that affected two or more states, but not to
police commercial activity confined to a single state.

And starting in 1995, the Supreme Court revived the concept that the
federal government is one of "enumerated powers"--meaning those powers
specifically granted in the Constitution. The commerce clause, it
said, is not a blank check for Washington to meddle in local matters.

So Monson should have won her case in a walk. The marijuana she used
was not part of interstate commerce. In the first place, it was never
any kind of commerce: She grew it herself. In addition, it never left
her home state. No one in Nevada or Arizona smelled the smoke or
enjoyed the high.

Yet this Supreme Court managed to find excuses to rule against her.
Quoting from a 1942 decision, Justice John Paul Stevens insisted that
even if an activity "is local and though it may not be regarded as
commerce, it may still, whatever its nature, be reached by Congress if
it exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce."

Oh? The Constitution grants Congress the power to regulate interstate
commerce--not anything that affects interstate commerce. Still, it's
absurd to think Monson's six plants could have even the slightest
effect on the national market for marijuana.

So the court was driven to say that Congress not only has the power to
regulate anything that might affect interstate commerce, it has the
power to regulate anything that might affect anything that might
affect interstate commerce. As dissenting Justice Clarence Thomas
warned, "If the majority is to be taken seriously, the federal
government may now regulate quilting bees, clothes drives and potluck
suppers throughout the 50 states."

Yes, Mr. Madison, our federal government is one of a few defined
powers--and a whole lot of undefined ones.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake