What Was Scalia Thinking?

From Mark Moller, the editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review:

The verdict in Gonzales v. Raich last week was a stunning victory for federal power, and it came with an unusual endorsement. The Court upheld Drug Enforcement Agency prosecution of sick women who use medical marijuana to treat symptoms of their illnesses. Siding with the DEA, six justices held that the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution (which gives the federal government the power to "regulate Commerce...among the several States") allows Washington, D.C. to regulate purely local conduct when that activity is targeted as part of a "comprehensive" scheme of regulations. The Court held that it's irrelevant if the regulated activity is confined to just one state.

What baffled many conservatives was the concurring opinion by one Antonin Scalia, who sided with big government against a sane interpretation of the Commerce Clause. It was a surprising vote for the justice who once edited the deregulation-inclined Regulation Magazine (now published by the Cato Institute).