Landor v. Louisiana Dept of Corrections and Public Safety · ¶53

The majority’s analysis is spellbindingly straightforward: Spending Clause statutes are contracts, and contracts bind only those who consent. Ante, at 6–8. But pulling this rabbit out of the hat requires misconstruing the Spending Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause, and ignoring decades of precedent affirming Congress’s authority to use the power of the purse to govern. In the end, the Court reduces some of Congress’s greatest legislative achievements—federal laws that secure civil rights, environmental stability, healthcare, and more—to nothing more than the wheelings-and-dealings of an especially wealthy private party. Because I would not so trivialize a federal statute or the constitutional powers pursuant to which it was passed, I respectfully dissent.

slip opinion, revised 6/28/26
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