Could we take a pass?

Tough Commerce Clause issues on the Clean Water Act today. Our readers are probably familiar with my view, that the Commerce Clause needs to be limited and federalism is an important feature of our government(s).

But this is a tough one. Environmental issues readily cross state lines, which raises the prospect of legitimacy of federal laws. Just as one cannot say the national government has no power under a federalist point of view (thus rendering specious one of the Democrats' criticisms of Republicans refusal to follow the Florida Supreme Court in 2000), arguing for limits on the Commerce Clause is not tantamount to saying the feds have no commerce power.

Environmentalism is an area where I would be predisposed to find national power. If the court rules otherwise, and of course a large part of me hopes it does, given the importance of the idea of finding limits to national power, I hope it comes up with good structure for doing so.