The Supreme Court announced today that federal laws governing marijuana trump state laws. The court’s not saying that it agrees with the federal law, necessarily, only that Congress really does have jurisdiction. As always, that jurisdiction stems from the “Commerce Clauseâ€, which says that Congress has the power to regular interstate commerce. Whether or not this really counts as interstate commerce, well…who knows.
I’m disappointed, but not surprised, by the decision … a decision in which the Supreme Court essentially ruled that, when members of Congress drafted the Controlled Substances Act, they assumed intrastate commerce was covered, even though they didn’t include it in the law. Also, I know the court has stretched the authority of Congress to regulate intrastate commerce under the Commerce Clause (way beyond the scope of the Constitution in my opinion), but this case involved non-commercial activity. The court also invoked the Supremacy Clause, which might have applied if Congress actually had jurisdiction over intrastate, non-commercial commerce (an aside: do the ninth and tenth amendments mean anything anymore?).
This is strictly a case where the court wanted a certain outcome and ruled that way based on some really flimsy legal arguments (I know, I know, it’s not the first time). It’s getting to the point where Canadian citizenship looks … not so bad to me.
There will be a lot more coverage of this tomorrow, and maybe that will address some of my concerns about the decision. Somehow, though, I doubt it.