PEJMAN YOUSEFZADEH writes in TechCentralStation:

We’ve previously seen the Bush Administration’s lack of devotion to the principles of federalism in the debate over the Federal Marriage Amendment — which proposed to constitutionalize the precept that in all fifty states, marriage should be limited to being between one man and one woman. Now the Administration’s stance in Ashcroft v. Raich resurrects concerns among small-government conservatives and libertarians that the principles of federalism are going by the boards. . . .

It is paradoxical that a conservative Republican Administration should repeatedly be seeking to inflict hammer blows against a cherished conservative and libertarian doctrine — the doctrine of federalism which is part and parcel of our Constitutional order. But on issues like same-sex marriage and the Raich case, the Bush Administration has sought to undermine the system of federalism and to instead establish a federal police power that is entirely anathema to our system of government. This effort must be resisted by conservatives and libertarians as surely as if the effort were being made by a liberal Democratic Administration. Federalism deserves no less.

Indeed. By the way, for some more scholarly writings of mine on the importance of federalism, you might want to read this article on its importance in limiting the power of special interests, and this article (and this followup piece) on the way lower courts have treated the Lopez and Morrison decisions. And for a real blast from the past, here’s a paper that I wrote for the Cato Institute back before the Lopez decision came down.