Folks such as Wash Post columnist George Will and legal theorist Randy Barnett, to name two of many on the conservative and libertarian ends of things, are working hard to say the real silver lining in the SCOTUS decision is the clear language the court used in limited Congress’ use of the Commerce Clause. As Will put it, “At least Roberts got the court to embrace emphatic language rejecting the Commerce Clause rationale for penalizing the inactivity of not buying insurance.”

Yeah, well, when Chief Justice Roberts closed a window, he opened a door. Sure, I’d like to have some of what I assume Roberts and the rest of the Supes were smoking when they signed off on the it’s-a-tax-not-a-penalty decision, but medical is illegal even in states where it’s legal (wha?). That’s due to the decision in a slightly older Supreme Court case, Raich v. Gonzalez, which showed the Commerce Clause to be infinitely stretchable when need be.

Will may be right that yesterday’s decision may spark a backlash in favor of smaller government (or at least one that calls a tax a tax), but anybody who thinks government at any level will feel even the slightest bit limited by the ruling is flat-out wrong.