WASHINGTON — If you choose, as swarms of Californians are doing, to live somewhere other than California, the state will still try to govern you. It is logistically unfeasible to isolate pork destined for California from that destined for the other 49 states. The Constitution’s commerce clause vests in Congress all power “to regulate commerce ... among the several states,” and a court-created doctrine (the “dormant commerce clause”) prohibits states from discriminating against or unduly burdening interstate commerce. In its May 11 ruling upholding California’s law, the court engaged in hairsplitting about possible benefits from states’ possibly permissible burdens on interstate commerce. The court should instead have endorsed an amicus brief supporting the challenge to California’s law.

Source: Washington Post May 17, 2023 04:29 UTC