Ninja Monkie Bacchanal

Quick question: Who is more of a federalist? Senator McCain or Senator Obama?  A quick search of Google should indicate their positions, right? According to Senator McCain’s campaign website:

John McCain believes that one of the greatest threats to our liberty and the Constitutional framework that safeguards our freedoms are willful judges who usurp the role of the people and their representatives and legislate from the bench. As President, John McCain will nominate judges who understand that their role is to faithfully apply the law as written, not impose their opinions through judicial fiat.

Sounds like he is advocating enumerated powers to me. According to this article in the Virginia Federalist, Obama is no fan of federalism.

So why am I asking?  This article in reason magazine:

When Owen Beck was 17, doctors amputated his right leg to stop the spread of bone cancer. His parents, desperate to find a drug that would relieve their son’s excruciating phantom limb pain, brought him to Charlie Lynch’s medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, California, carrying a recommendation from a Stanford University oncologist. The marijuana not only eased the pain but also alleviated the nausea caused by chemotherapy.

Called to testify as a character witness in Lynch’s federal marijuana trial, Beck did not get far. When he mentioned his cancer, U.S. District Judge George Wu cut him off and sent him packing. Wu decreed there would be no talk of the symptoms marijuana relieves, no references to California’s recognition of marijuana as a medicine, no mention even of the phrase medical marijuana in front of the jury.

In short, there would be no explanation of how Lynch came to operate what prosecutors called a “marijuana store” in downtown Morro Bay for a year, openly serving more than 2,000 customers. Under federal law, which forbids marijuana use for any purpose, all that was irrelevant. So it’s hardly surprising that Lynch was convicted last week of five marijuana-related offenses that carry penalties of five to 85 years in prison.

The article points out that Senator McCain supports the raids and Senator Obama says he would shut them down. What we have here is a state law in California that was passed by the duly elected members of that legislature. Now the federal government comes in and prosecutes people for following that law. It is the very OPPOSITE of federalism. How can Senator McCain justify his support for federalism then? Only when it is convenient for him? Someone should ask him I think. 

BTW, it is not very often you will find me agreeing with Justice Clarence Thomas (when the US Supreme Court gave the federal government the ability to conduct these raids in 2005), but in this case I do:

Respondents Diane Monson and Angel Raich use marijuana that has never been bought or sold, that has never crossed state lines, and that has had no demonstrable effect on the national market for marijuana. If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything--and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers.