An atrocious ruling from the Supreme Court yesterday in United States v. Comstock, as has been noted. It is no real surprise that the liberals on the Court ruled the way they did. They believe in big government and need a way to get around a Constitution that set up a federal government of limited and enumerated powers. Thus, we are told a “living” Constitution “evolves” in such a way as to accomodate the administrative state that is all around us. But the law at issue in the Comstock case did not arise during the Clinton years. The Adam Walsh Child Protection Act was championed by conservative legislators in the Congress and signed by Bush.
Until the Comstock ruling was issued, court watchers were unsure of how committed Bush’s Supreme Court picks (Roberts and Alito) were to the constitutional doctrine of enumerated powers. The answer has now arrived: Not much. As the Bush memoir makes its way to the bookstores, I expect there will be a good deal of spin about how good the Bush presidency was. Well, it wasn’t.
