A very thoughtful opinion and some links to counterpoints by someone whose opinion I am very proud to say supports mine just came online about 1/2 hour ago (none of these are my blogs) here: I respect Jacobsen's opinion, too. Very interesting. And since I have already far exceeded my meager knowledge of constitutional law [though I always reserve my right to pronounce my constitutional opinions,] I shall withdraw. You have brought up a very interesting point that the entire media ( surprise, surprise) has ignored or is not aware of.
It's fun to learn stuff.
I'd
love to believe that Roberts' opinion wasn't a betrayal, but I just don't see how it's possible. The Commerce Clause was very nearly out of steam already; Justice Thomas has been making inroads in that regard for years -- even to the extent that Scalia, who had been surprisingly supportive of commerce issues in the past had come around to Thomas's position. Scalia recently went so far as to ridicule the original use of the Commerce Clause in the 1930's decisions where it was first invoked (abused.)
Now the leftists have a whole new weapon in their arsenal to replace the rapidly fading Commerce Clause, and it is even deadlier than before, and given how thoroughly incomprehensible, tortured, and at many points even laughably silly Roberts' opinion is, I'm afraid they also have a new CJ on their side as well...