1 Yeah, I can't understand at all why they would come down against medical marijuana. It's none of government's business, and this nannyism has gotten out of hand.

2 In other news...the number of reported glaucoma cases plummets.

3 And Federalism dies.

4 Justice Thomas' dissent is more-or-less what I expected Scalia to say, and it's a corker: http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03-1454.ZD1.html I've argued on occasion before that Scalia is widely misunderstood; his judgements are rooted in his legal philosophy, not his personal politics, and whatever you can say about the merits or demerits of originalism, originalism is not merely a pseudonym for "conservatism". Calling Scalia a "consrevative" Justice is therefore inaccurate - he's an originalist Judge, which is precisely what we need more of. But I have to admit to being thoroughly flummoxed by Raich going this way and turning on Scalia's vote; SCOTUSblog, IIRC, had predicted that this would be a 5-4 extension to Lopez, written by Rehnquist, and instead, we get a Stevens opinion with a Scalia concurrence that baffles me. So maybe I've misunderstood him too, or maybe this is just out of character for him. Still a very disappointing result, but again, a fabulous dissent from Justice Thomas, who is very much under-appreciated, I think.

5 The silver lining: perhaps people will stop accusing Thomas of being Scalia's mini-me.

6 perhaps people will stop accusing Thomas of being Scalia's mini-me. When that happens, I'm going to start looking nervously at the sky for other impending signs of the rapture beginning. I've found the vitriol levelled at Clarence Thomas utterly stupifying, until I read the Thomas Sowell piece you posted last month (in re Janice Rogers Brown), which made an excellent suggestion (echoed, actually, a suggestion previously made by Tammy Bruce in The Death of Right & Wrong) as to why, viz., that the Democrats can't stand to see successfulll black Republicans, as it undercuts the entire basis of their claim to be "the natural home of minorities". Even a cursory look at Thomas' opinions shows that he has a distinct set of views of his own, and that he is a very capable Justice, whose primary misfortune has been serving at the same time as - and thus in the shadows of - two of the most consequential jurists to sit on that bench.

7 Kudos to Simon. Thomas Sowell has commented long on the fact that if the left cannot create an underclass dependent on them for their rights, as defined by the left, not the Constitution, who is going to support them? As illustrated in a current NY Times series, the encouragement of class warfare, even if it has to be invented, opens the door for the Vanguard Elite. That worked pretty well c. 1917.

1 Legal Theory Blog has a lengthy discussion as to what Raich may mean for the "new federalism" doctrine the court had once been thought to be steering for in Lopez and Morrison. One of the joyous things about following SCOTUS, rather than Congress, is that, as a rule, Justices are inclined to explain - in lengthy, written discussions - as to why they vote a certain way. I like Justice Scalia a lot; I agree with his conclusions in most cases, I agree with his thought process and legal reasoning, and I like his writing style. Thus, when he reaches - as he does today, in Raich - a conclusion stunningly at variance with not only how I would have voted but how I would have expected him to vote, I can at least read his opinion and try to understand his logic. Alas, by contrast: when my Senators vote in ways that absolutley confound me, it's rather harder to get any insight into how they arrived at that conclusion. Today's majority surprises me, but once I've read back through the four opinions - Stevens per curiam, Scalia concurring, O'Connor and Thomas dissenting - I will doubtless have to think hard on whether I'm wrong about this.

2 Except for the use of Zyklon B, the so called WAR ON DRUGS has a lot in common with the Nazi WAR ON JEWS. The proganda is almost identical, and those who are not shot by the cops (death by delusional paranoia) are to die of "natural causes" (AIDS, TB, Hepatitas, Violence) in prison.