States Rights

In a potentially far-reaching opinion, the Supreme Court declared Wednesday that states are separate and sovereign governments and generally cannot be sued for failing to comply with federal laws. The 5-4 ruling marks the third time in five years that the conservative high court has broadly strengthened the powers of the states at the expense of the federal government.

Ever since the Democratic Congress passed President Obama's healthcare law, critics have focused their ire on the requirement that all Americans have health insurance beginning in 2014. But some legal experts believe - and progressives worry - the Supreme Court's conservatives will instead target another mandate in the new law: the requirement that states expand the Medicaid rolls and provide subsidized healthcare for as many as 17 million more low-income people. On Wednesday, the third day of oral arguments on the law, 26 Republican-led states will argue that the federal pressure to expand Medicaid to all low-income Americans violates states' rights.

The proposal to ban betting in Nevada on college sports [March 21] makes no sense. The same politicians who claim that legal gambling is somehow linked to point-shaving scandals on college campuses line their pockets with tobacco money and oppose any regulation or tax increases on tobacco despite its proven link to lung cancer and death. I should be allowed to decide whether I want to spend my money on snowboards, jet skis or sports bets in Nevada. What do I need a tax cut for if the government is just going to tell me how I can and cannot spend my hard-earned money?

All Southern Californians should be outraged at the Bush administration's plan to kill our pollution controls in this area (Aug. 31). Incredibly, in a "friend of the court" brief, these Republicans have interjected (at any cost -- your health and mine) their pro-business agenda in a state matter involving our clean air. Amazingly, it was the third time in August they tried to kill our long-standing successful clean-air efforts. Are Southern Californians paying attention? Some of us remember the Bush Republicans' campaign for less federal government and more states' rights.

The real news on Nov. 21 was "Global Warming to Sap the West's Water Needs, Study Finds," on the anticipated impact of global warming drastically limiting the state water supply in the coming decades. This matter, plus anticipated large population increases in the state, will be troublesome, to say the least. Better start thinking seriously about carrying capacity of the land, true costs of gasoline and other materials -- and the major public policy issues facing us. It's not fun, but we have to start somewhere.