Excellent article by Will Baude on the Medical Marijuana Case

Will Baude, Yale law student and contributor to the group blawg Crescat Sententia, writes in an article posted at the New Republic Online titled "State's Evidence":

...the Court's invocation of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution--which says that federal laws that are not unconstitutional are "the supreme law of the land"--is misleading. Nobody doubts that when a valid federal law and a valid state law conflict, the federal law prevails. But to determine whether the federal law is valid in the first place, state law is relevant. The federal law is valid only if it is necessary for the interstate drug laws to work, so one has to look at whether the interstate drug laws would work if California's scheme were in place." (emphasis added)

Read, as they say, the whole thing.

Oh, and if you ever catch me writing "Indeed." as the meaningless final word in a post which consists essentially of someone else's thoughts, please speak up; such pomposity* deserves a kick in the head.

The reason you point to an article is to draw attention to it, either to heap ridicule, invite criticism of it, express approval, or otherwise publicize its message. To cite something approvingly and append the empty-headed "Indeed" is to loudly proclaim, "I have nothing to say, but this person said it better than I could." Indeed!

*Gentle disrespect intended for a certain other blogger, who is after all a professor, well-regarded, highly prolific, quite bright, and likes CCR. And more famous to the nth degree than this anonymous blogger, who is after all not regularly featured on MSNBC.

Aside- worst combination ever: MSNBCBSABCNN. I note that by cramming them together this way I include BSA... both a certain discriminatory organization and the Business Software Alliance. Ah, the things one can learn with Google.