When it comes to the Affordable Care Act, states rights are being trampled and the U.S. Constitution is under attack.
But when Colorado legalizes marijuana, states rights mean nothing--those stoners are violating federal laws, and the Supreme Court needs to get them back in line.
From Jon Bruning, Nebraska Attorney General, regarding Colorado's marijuana laws:
Nebraska and Oklahoma's complaint argues that Colorado does not have authority to pass laws that conflict with the federal prohibition on marijuana. Doing so, the states claim, violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.That's handy, isn't it? In this case, federal laws (regardless of their own constitutionality) override all state laws. The Supremacy Clause says so. Not even the strongest can overcome the power of the capitol.
Or can they? From the same Jon Bruning, regarding the Affordable Care Act:
"It tramples on individual liberty and dumps on the states the burden of an unfunded mandate that taxpayers cannot afford," said Bruning, who is also president of the National Association of Attorneys General.When hypocrisy masquerades as principle, the formula is pretty easy to see: federal laws should be ignored when they force you to do something that you don't want to do, but federal laws are absolutely supreme when they prevent someone else from doing something you don't want them to be able to do. If you claim to be a "small government" person and then you go crying to a branch of the federal government over another state's marijuana laws, then you absolutely deserve to have something the Affordable Care Act land right in your lap.
