Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety · ¶35

This submission fails as well. Mr. Landor would have us hold, for the first time, that so long as a penny of federal spending makes its way to an individual, however indirectly, Congress can regulate his conduct directly based on the fiction that he has consented to regulation. None of that is consistent with our precedents holding that funding conditions in Spending Clause legislation lack independent regulatory force but instead derive their effect from “voluntar[y] and knowin[g]” assent. Pennhurst, 451 U. S., at 17.

slip opinion, revised 6/28/26
Source edition
Passage preview. Read in context for the complete text, notes and references.