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by vel0city 621 days ago
Electromagnetic waves transit state lines pretty much constantly. Hardware which creates/receives radio waves pretty much constantly transits state lines as well, I don't know too many radio manufacturers which restrict sale to only the state they operate in. You should probably read the constitution first about things which are interstate and who has permissions to regulate it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commerce_Clause
1 comments
sneak 621 days ago
It’s still against the law in the US to transmit on many bands without a license even if you build your own radio from scratch at home. Talking at a distance has nothing inherently to do with commerce.

We basically punted on the 10th amendment with things like the FCC and DOE (education, not energy).

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vel0city 621 days ago
> It’s still against the law in the US to transmit on many bands without a license even if you build your own radio from scratch at home

Electromagnetic waves transit state lines pretty much constantly. Even though I'm in Texas I'll get radio waves from Oklahoma, Louisiana, and even Illinois from time to time.

> Talking at a distance has nothing inherently to do with commerce.

Talking at a distance does affect commerce when that talking at a distance interferes with other people trying to talk and conduct interstate commerce. Guess I'll have to state it again, electromagnetic waves transit state lines pretty much constantly.

And it would absolutely affect interstate commerce if every state decided on different frequencies for commercial FM radio, different frequencies for cell phones, different frequencies for TV signals, different encodings for those things, etc. imagine needing to buy a different radio for NY as TX or IL or CA. Or if you needed different cell phones as you traveled state lines.

> We basically punted on the 10th amendment with things like the FCC and DOE

People being illiterate definitely affects interstate commerce. People not being able to count definitely affects interstate commerce.

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willcipriano 621 days ago
> People being illiterate definitely affects interstate commerce. People not being able to count definitely affects interstate commerce.

Fetuses that get aborted might have grown up to be residents of another state who would've bought products there.

Marijuana sold to medical patients in one state may end up in another, reducing alcohol sales.

Socialized medicine programs offered by state governments might lessen the profits of insurance and pharmaceutical firms that are headquartered out of state.

California's labeling laws result in labels that end up on products sold in other states increasing the costs of those products.

State level environmental regulations may impact publicly traded companies and thus the stock market generally, and thereby people in other states. (This one could be used to justify basically anything)

A higher minimum wage in one state may attract workers from out of state.

Educating children about sex might reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies and thus accelerate demographic collapse, harming the economy more generally.

A gay pride parade might result in social media posts shown in other states with ads next to it.

The passage or enforcement of any law might result in news stories in other states on for profit media outlets. Similarly the lack of such a law may result less work for journalists as they can't write about a law that doesn't exist.

What was even the point of the 10th amendment if it was intended to be interpreted as it is today? It seems to do nothing.

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