Federalist Rolling Papers

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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/12/oklahoma_and_nebraska_sue_colorado_a_hypocritical_lawsuit_could_undermine.html


Fair-weather federalists: Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, left, andNebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning.

The attorneys general of Nebraska and Oklahoma have decided that they should have a say over what happens in the state of Colorado. Just before the holidays, the two men, Jon Bruning and Scott Pruitt, filed a lawsuit against Colorado for legalizing marijuana. The suit is a long shot, but some respected legal scholars think Bruning and Pruitt have a fighting chance. Should they succeed, their case could lead to epic battles among the states over regulation of guns and pollution—and give Congress unprecedented power.

Bruning and Pruitt’s crusade against Colorado’s marijuana laws conflicts with their ostensible support of states’ rights. As attorney general of Nebraska, Bruning has fought Obamacare with the fanaticism of a zealot, arguing in a legal challenge that the law tramped upon states’ rights. As attorney general of Oklahoma, Pruitt has led the next major challenge to the act, insisting that the federal government must respect states’ decisions not to set up their own exchanges and to deny their citizens cheap access to good insurance. Both men believe their states have a right to control their own health insurance systems.

But when another state decides to experiment with a new drug policy, Bruning and Pruitt’s support for state sovereignty dries up. They are arguing that Congress’s prohibition against marijuana should force every state to prohibit it as well. (These attorneys general aren’t opposed to all intoxicants. Their position on marijuana might have something to do with the fact that both Bruning and Pruitt have received significant campaign contributions from alcohol industries.)

This strange little lawsuit against Colorado is so astonishingly hypocritical, so brazenly antipodal to Bruning and Pruitt’s professed philosophy, that even admirers of both men are aghast. Case Western Law’s Jonathan H. Adler, the mastermind behind the latest Obamacare suit, noted with disgust that “it is as if their arguments about federalism and state autonomy were not arguments of principle but rather an opportunistic effort to challenge federal policies they don’t like on other grounds.” Georgetown Law’s Randy Barnett, who brought the first Obamacare suit from the fringe to the mainstream, wrote that “I see no other way to interpret Nebraska and Oklahoma’s lawsuits than as an example of ‘fair weather federalism.’ ” (Federalism describes the balance of power between states and the central government; self-described federalists favor increased state autonomy.)

[TampaAnimusVortex]

1. Oh well, its not like the 10th amendment was ever seriously considered anyways.

Most politicians and people consider the central document that only grants very specific powers to the feds as "guidelines" anyways.

No document is going to keep a bunch of corrupt politicians in check.