The court should instead have endorsed an amicus brief supporting the challenge to California’s law. Written by Michael W. McConnell of Stanford Law School, the brief said:

“States have authority only to regulate activities within their own jurisdiction.” And: “States generally may not punish people for deeds done in other states.” And a state “cannot block interstate commerce for the purpose of coercing or influencing the way people behave in other states.”

McConnell warned that if the court allows California’s law to stand, the state can use its market power to impose its politics on non-Californians “in countless other ways.”