Montana’s States’ Rights Showdown
State lawmakers have done a lot since President Obama's election to shake off Uncle Sam, passing "sovereignty" resolutions and a record number of laws that specifically defy Congress on issues such as legalized marijuana and health-care reform. Most make the same claim: that the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government power to regulate commerce between states but doesn't permit interference in purely local affairs. Later this year, the Montana Firearms Freedom Act, which proclaims that guns manufactured in Montana and sold in state are not subject to federal rules such as background checks, is slated to become the first of these Obama-era commerce challenges tested in court. But the case, which originated when a gun-rights group sued the Justice Department for threatening a crackdown, shouldn't give separatists hope: it's doomed to fail, as will similar rebukes.
That's because no state is an island (Hawaii included), and Congress can regulate anything that could jump state lines. It's a category, says George Mason University professor Nelson Lund, a Second Amendment scholar, that excludes almost nothing—certainly not pot and guns.
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Daniel Stone is Newsweek’s White House correspondent. He also covers national energy and environmental policy.
Stuart Taylor joined Newsweek as a contributing editor in January 1998, writing on legal issues. He was a finalist for the 1997 National Magazine Awards for his article on Paula Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton. Since November 1997, Taylor has also been an opinion columnist for National Journal, where he writes a weekly column.
Before Taylor began working for Newsweek and National Journal, he had been a senior writer with American Lawyer Media, which owns The American Lawyer magazine and several weekly and daily legal newspapers, including Legal Times. He wrote a weekly opinion column for seven weekly and daily newspapers, focusing on legal-political issues on the national level. He has also previously written in-depth feature articles and essays for The American Lawyer. Taylor has been a guest on broadcasts for ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, PBS, C-Span and National Public Radio.
His journalism honors include two nominations as a finalist for a National Magazine Award (1997 and 1993), a shared National Magazine Award given to The American Lawyer in 1991 for Best Single Issue (for a March 1990 special issue on the war on drugs), the 1991 Golden Quill Award for Excellence in Editorial Writing from the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors, a special citation in 1990 from the Penn State School of Communications for improving journalism through critical evaluation and a nomination by The New York Times in 1988 for a Pulitzer Prize for his supreme court coverage.
Taylor was a legal affairs reporter from 1980-1985 and Supreme Court reporter from 1985-1988 in the Washington bureau of The New York Times. Prior to that post, he was a lawyer with Washington's Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering from 1977-1980. He graduated from Princeton University in 1970 with an A.B. in History, and from Harvard Law School in 1977, where he was a member of the law review. He lives in Washington with his wife, Sally Lamar Ellis, and their two daughters.
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