WSJ Editorials

The Wall Street Journal carried a couple of interesting editorials today. The first deals with the Supreme Court's ruling in Gonzales vs. Raich (which is a case about medical marijuana). The editorial rightly points out that the biggest danger with the ruling is that it establishes a further precedent allowing the federal government to regulate any matter (i.e. regardless of whether or not the subject is one enumerated in the Constitution as falling under federal jurisdiction).

This quote from the editorial summarizes the danger:

"If, as Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in his majority concurrence, non-economic activities can be regulated so long as they are part of a "comprehensive scheme of regulation," there would appear to be no federal power the Commerce Clause couldn't theoretically justify. "

The second editorial provides more evidence on the deterioration of health care (and the increase in costs) in our current highly regulated and litigious environment, as well as providing some foreshadowing of what it will be like as it becomes more nationalized.