Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety · ¶100

Start with Dole itself. Dole upheld a federal law conditioning highway funding on States raising the legal age for purchasing or publicly possessing alcohol—that is, on States forbidding a category of behavior for young adults. 483 U. S., at 205. Underage drinkers are not the Federal Government's contracting partners. Cf. id., at 218 (O'Connor, J., dissenting) (arguing that the law was unconstitutional because it was not “a condition determining how federal highway money shall be expended” but rather “a regulation determining who shall be able to drink liquor”). But we held that Congress could nonetheless use its spending power to regulate their drinking habits in this fashion.

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