658
Breyer, J., dissenting
interstate effects of wheat grown for home consumption); Heart of Atlanta Motel, supra, at 258 (" '[I]f it is interstate commerce that feels the pinch, it does not matter how local the operation which applies the squeeze' " (quoting United States v. Women's Sportswear Mfrs. Assn., 336 U. S. 460, 464 (1949))). Nothing in the Constitution's language, or that of earlier cases prior to Lopez, explains why the Court should ignore one highly relevant characteristic of an interstate-commerce-affecting cause (how "local" it is), while placing critical constitutional weight upon a different, less obviously relevant, feature (how "economic" it is).
Most importantly, the Court's complex rules seem unlikely to help secure the very object that they seek, namely, the protection of "areas of traditional state regulation" from federal intrusion. Ante, at 615. The Court's rules, even if broadly interpreted, are underinclusive. The local pick-pocket is no less a traditional subject of state regulation than is the local gender-motivated assault. Regardless, the Court reaffirms, as it should, Congress' well-established and frequently exercised power to enact laws that satisfy a commerce-related jurisdictional prerequisite—for example, that some item relevant to the federally regulated activity has at some time crossed a state line. Ante, at 609, 611-612, 613, and n. 5; Lopez, supra, at 558; Heart of Atlanta Motel, supra, at 256 (" '[T]he authority of Congress to keep the channels of interstate commerce free from immoral and injurious uses has been frequently sustained, and is no longer open to question' " (quoting Caminetti v. United States, 242 U. S. 470, 491 (1917))); see also United States v. Bass, 404 U. S. 336, 347-350 (1971) (saving ambiguous felon-in-possession statute by requiring gun to have crossed state line); Scarborough v. United States, 431 U. S. 563, 575 (1977) (interpreting same statute to require only that gun passed "in interstate commerce" "at some time," without questioning constitutionality); cf., e. g., 18 U. S. C. § 2261(a)(1) (making it a federal crime for a person to cross state lines to commit
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