Rob Natelson | The Libertarian Institute

Where were all the Constitution’s defenders when the feds raised the smoking age?

On December 20, President Trump signed legislation purporting to impose a single national age of 21 for selling tobacco products. Obviously, the measure reduces the freedom of millions of Americans who are legally adults in almost every other respect—including (correctly or not) the right to vote. Moreover, setting minimum consumption ages is not a power the Constitution grants the federal government. The Constitution reserves it to the states. The issue here, of course, is not whether tobacco products are safe. They clearly are not. The issue here is whether our Constitution and the...

Should we interpret the Constitution so the feds can oversee everything affecting more than one state?

The Constitution lists powers it grants to the federal government, reserving the rest in the states and the people. Over the last few decades, some federal powers—particularly those embodied in the Commerce Clause, Taxation Clause, Necessary and Proper Clause, and Property and Enclave Clauses—have become stretched out of recognition. The power to regulate interstate commerce, for example, has become authority to regulate the entire economy. The power to tax has become authority to spend on anything Congress wishes. And the Property and Enclave Clauses have been expanded into federal...

Where were all the Constitution’s defenders when the feds raised the smoking age?

Should we interpret the Constitution so the feds can oversee everything affecting more than one state?

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