tdaxp

I'm more sanguine about Massachusetts v. EPA (the "global warming case") than Ed Whelan. While the court's four liberal justices got the result they wanted (pushing the EPA closer to regulating CO2 emissions), they had to dig pretty deep into paleoconservatism for a justification how to do it. To get states-righters Anthony Kennedy's fifth and decisive vote, the court resurrected a rather hard-edged "Father of the People" interpretation of Amendment X.

In the case, the Court decided that because States are the Fathers of their People, but are unable to resort to armed invasion to protect their people, their pleas must be listened to more readily by the Court than if the States were just land-owning persons or societies.

Amendment X, the states rights amendment, maintains the United States as an open society. It allows the sort of local experimentation and resilient networking that makes the United States an exceptionally agile country.

Amendment X is also despised by tyrants of all stripes. Both Leftist and Rightist factions happily trample on the freedom of states and citizens in order to push their through own agendas . That the court's liberals are now retreating to Amendment X to defend their agendas is a good sign for freedom, liberty, and decentralized government.