What was at issue is whether a federal drug law, the controlled Substances Act, gives the Attorney General the power to second guess states' assisted suicide policies. And the court said that the congressional drug law didn't clearly give the Attorney General that authority. That's all it held.

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The decision says that local governments can take private property and give it to another entity, if the second is going to upgrade the property in some way. There is no reason why this would not apply to businesses. The only check remaining is the political dynamics of local government. To the extent that businesses do not have political clout, they will also be vulnerable.

180

It's the question of independence. Is she as a judge going to be the person who will stand up and tell the president no when he's doing something he shouldn't be doing?

176

Here's what we do know: Polls are driving President Bush's court picks. At a low ebb in his presidency, the president has passed over well-known, if controversial, constitutionalists and chosen a sphinx-like presidential pal.

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She's in the pocket of the president who nominated her.

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