Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety · ¶119

Today the Court abandons its warranted caution. An interpretive guide becomes a substantive limitation on Congress’s authority, as the Court takes a step toward embracing what one scholar has criticized as the “strong contract theory”: the radical notion that Spending Clause legislation is not just “‘in the nature of ’ a contract,” but is in fact “noth ing but a contract.” S. Bagenstos, Spending Clause Litigation in the Roberts Court, 58 Duke L. J. 345, 385 (2008) (quoting Pennhurst, 451 U. S., at 17).

slip opinion, revised 6/28/26
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