And while I think the court was probably correct in that case, the feds have way overstepped their bounds in many other areas and have gotten away with it. One reason is the concept of forcing compliance or face the loss of funding.

Take what is going on right now with the school lunch program*. Either the school districts do what the feds want or they lose funding. That is not how this country is supposed to work. The framers set it up so state and local jurisdictions would make those decisions, not the feds as it is much easier to vote out a county commissioner or school board member than a congressman or senator.

I wonder why we even bother with the concept of states any more. As the feds create more and more regulations state laws are becoming less and less important.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist who thinks there is some secret club of old white guys pulling the strings. But instead there is an entrenched bureaucracy who will do what ever it needs to stay in power.

* On a side note to this, my local school district does more to feed poor kids than any federal mandate over what is in their lunch. The schools collect food brought in by other students (we just give money so they can buy things they need) and put it in bags for kids to take home at night and over the weekend so they have something to eat when not at school. Not one federal dime goes into this program and yet it somehow does a better job.