Court Opinion

ID: 9534832
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:43:04.913456+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:32:45.355946
License: Public Domain

LIVERMORE, Judge,
specially concurring.
While it is frequently said that congressional power over foreign commerce is plenary, that has never meant that all state power over articles arriving across an international boundary is lost. All agree on the facts of this case that the state may punish for the possession of the cocaine just imported from Mexico. That impact on international commerce has never prevented the exercise of state police power unless the exercise in some way conflicts *512with an express congressional policy. If the state may prevent the importation of contraband by criminalizing its possession, I see no reason why it may not prevent its importation directly. To do so, rather than conflicting with congressional policy, in fact reinforces it.