The Court Case Haunting Health Care: Wickard Vs. Filburn

The Bloomberg Businessweek reports:

Before there was the Tea Party, there was Roscoe Filburn. Almost 60 years ago, Filburn took a stand against what he saw as federal meddling with his family farm in Dayton. When the Agriculture Dept. fined him for exceeding his government-imposed quota for winter wheat production, Filburn sued, taking his case all the way to the Supreme Court.

The court's unanimous 1942 ruling against Filburn broadened Congress' right to regulate interstate commerce and opened the way for sweeping environmental, consumer protection, and workplace safety laws. The case still reverberates: The Supreme Court's interpretation of Wickard v. Filburn could determine whether challenges to President Barack Obama's health-care law are successful.

The New York Times and much of the liberal academic establishment will tell you Wickard v. Filburn has been settled long along. That progress is government regulation. After all, the grand utilitarian central planning of the Welfare State couldn't work if private property owners messed things up by expanding the supply of wheat on their private property.