Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-645_9p6b.pdf
Page Number: 5.0

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

5 

Statement of THOMAS, J. 

the watertight nationwide prohibition that a closely divided 
Court found necessary to justify the Government’s blanket
prohibition in Raich.  If the Government is now content to 
allow States to act “as laboratories” “ ‘and try novel social
and economic experiments,’ ” Raich, 545 U. S., at 42 (O’Con-
nor, J., dissenting), then it might no longer have authority 
to intrude on “[t]he States’ core police powers . . . to define 
criminal law and to protect the health, safety, and welfare 
of their citizens.”  Ibid.  A prohibition on intrastate use or
cultivation  of  marijuana  may  no  longer  be  necessary  or 
proper to support the Federal Government’s piecemeal ap-
proach.