Court Opinion

ID: 9429832
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:28:04.627882+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:21.415591
License: Public Domain

Justice Rehnquist,
dissenting.
I join both Justice Powell’s and Justice O’Connor’s thoughtful dissents. Justice Powell’s reference to the “balancing test” approved in National League of Cities is not identical with the language in that case, which recognized that Congress could not act under its commerce power to infringe on certain fundamental aspects of state sovereignty that are essential to “the States’ separate and independent existence.” Nor is either test, or JUSTICE *580O’Connor’s suggested approach, precisely congruent with Justice Blackmun’s views in 1976, when he spoke of a balancing approach which did not outlaw federal power in areas “where the federal interest is demonstrably greater.” But under any one of these approaches the judgment in these cases should be affirmed, and I do not think it incumbent on those of us in dissent to spell out further the fine points of a principle that will, I am confident, in time again command the support of a majority of this Court.