Today in Supreme Court History: June 6, 2005

6/6/2005: Gonzales v. Raich is decided.

Comments

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Randy Barnett argued in this case.

Justice Stevens in an interview noted he opposed the prohibition as a matter of policy but not as a matter of constitutional law.

The majority opinion in part noted: "the diversion of homegrown marijuana tends to frustrate the federal interest in eliminating commercial transactions in the interstate market."

Scalia concurred and emphasized the difference been the tangential at best (in his view) connections to interstate commerce in cases like Lopez and Morrison and this case.

That leaves it to congressional discretion to weigh the question which like Stevens I personally think they did so wrongly. OTOH, they did so correctly in the Affordable Care Act & there is also a suitable commercial hook and "proper" means used.