Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety · ¶31

That is incorrect. The four rules Mr. Landor extracts from Dole apply in addition to—not instead of—the rule that Congress may not use the Spending Clause to bind entities and individuals without their knowing and voluntary consent. That much is evident from Dole itself. As the dissent admits, Dole proceeds to add a fifth rule for Spending Clause legislation shortly after the passage Mr. Landor cites: Funding conditions may not “pass the point at which pressure turns into compulsion.” 483 U. S., at 211 (internal quotation marks omitted); post, at 12–13. And that bar on compulsion, as we have seen, serves to help ensure real consent exists. See Part II, supra. The same holds true of the clear-statement rule that Dole reaffirmed. Congress must impose spending conditions “unambiguously,” not for no reason, but so that participants in federally funded programs may “exercise their choice…

slip opinion, revised 6/28/26
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