Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety · ¶16

The terms of RLUIPA before us rest on a different foundation. As the parties agree, Congress enacted them pursuant to what is sometimes called the Constitution’s Spending Clause. See Sossamon v. Texas, 563 U. S. 277, 290 (2011); Brief for Petitioner 3; Brief for Respondents 2. That provision of Article I gives Congress the “Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States.” Art. I, §8, cl. 1. At the founding, some argued this language conferred on Congress the power to regulate on nearly any topic it wishes, backed by practically any sanction it chooses, so long as it does so in service of the “general Welfare.” See Medina, 606 U. S., at 370. It appears that Gouverneur Morris, a leading advocate of this reading and a member of the Committee on Style, even tried to replace one of the…

slip opinion, revised 6/28/26
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