RANDY BARNETT ON THE RAICH CASE:

The Ninth Circuit finally got its revenge on the Supreme Court justices who seemed to delight in reversing it. In Gonzales v. Raich, it gave the conservatives a choice: Uphold the Ninth Circuit’s ruling favoring individuals engaged in the wholly intrastate non-economic activity of growing and consuming cannabis for medical purposes as recommended by a doctor and permitted by state law, or retreat from the landmark Commerce Clause decisions of U.S. v. Lopez (1995) and U.S. v. Morrison (2000). Either way the Ninth Circuit wins. But with Justices Kennedy and Scalia on the liberal side of the Court, the Ninth Circuit won big. So did Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who first implemented this strategy in the child-porn case of U.S. v. McCoy.

As I’ve written elsewhere, stuff like this is why it’s hard for me to get excited about the filibuster fights; principled federalists seem rather thin on the ground, and I don’t see any great likelihood of getting more.

UPDATE: On the other hand, Julian Sanchez puts the best possible face on the Bush Administration’s commitment to federalism and limited government.