Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety · ¶109

Said otherwise, “we look to see whether the statute constitutes a means that is rationally related to the implemen tation of a constitutionally enumerated power.” United States v. Comstock, 560 U. S. 126, 134 (2010) (emphasis added). This is why “the Necessary and Proper Clause . . . authorizes Congress, in the implementation of other explicit powers, to create federal crimes, to confine offenders to prison” and more, Kebodeaux, 570 U. S., at 394–395—not because the power to imprison is incidental to the power to, say, regulate commerce, but because the power to imprison gives Congress the ability to “‘make [its] regulation[s] effective,’” Gonzales, 545 U. S., at 36 (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment) (quoting United States v. Wrightwood Dairy Co., 315 U. S. 110, 119 (1942)).

slip opinion, revised 6/28/26
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