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Words have meanings. Growing wheat for private consumption on one's own land is not "commerce" whatever the honourable idiots of the US Supreme Court think.

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The court did not rule if it was private consumption or not saying it was irrelevant.

For a modern example, if 1 million people in Florida install solar panels on their roofs it's going to defacto alter the wholesale electricity market.

Now, if that impact is enough to justify regulation is another issue, but the impact is clearly there.

This argument can be applied to anything, even black market industries. The commerce clause ruling allows congress to make a law about anything explicitly not forbidden in the Constitution or given as a power of a different branch. This was clearly not the writers intentions. It is a loophole of the sort that a judge wouldn't tolerate being used against them in their own courtroom.

The fact we dislike the conclusion does not make the argument void. However, I believe the interpretation is limited by magnitude. Someone growing a tiny number of poppy plants can't extract enough material to make meaningful amounts of Opium. Thus, they don't impact the illegal Opium trade.

Again, the regulation was he could use up to 11.1 acres and he did around twice that which is significant.

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