Does the federal government enjoy plenary power to regulate every aspect of corporeal existence, down to the rodents living in your backyard? People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners (PETPO), an organization of concerned citizens from Utah, say no, and want the Supreme Court to hear them out.
Article I of the Constitution lists the federal legislative powers: Congress may only act pursuant to one of these enumerated powers. One of these powers is the regulation of commerce “among the several states.” Starting with the New Deal, however, Congress has increasingly looked upon that power as a license to do whatever it likes. And for decades, the courts rubber-stamped these increasingly expansive federal intrusions into areas traditionally reserved to the states.
But in a series of cases, starting with 1995’s United States v. Lopez, the Supreme Court began to push back, reaffirming that federal regulation under the Commerce Clause must be, well, commercial. Recall that while Chief Justice John Roberts ultimately saved Obamacare by transmogrifying the individual mandate into a tax, he and the Court majority rejected the government’s arguments regarding the Commerce and Necessary and Proper Clauses.
That brings us to the current case. The Utah prairie dog, which resides only within a small corner of southwest Utah, has no commercial value: there is no market for it—they make terrible pets—or any product made from it. Moreover, the current population is large and expanding. Yet it is listed as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.
Read more at https://www.cato.org/blog/supreme-court-should-protect-federalism-against-pests-both-rodential-congressional
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