Congress' authority to enact FDR's New Deal, Civil Rights legislation and environmental protections is all rooted in the Commerce Clause, a little 16-word line in the Constitution with big consequences. Not only does the Commerce Clause undergird the vast majority of federal laws, it was the Framers' primary response to the plague of states' rights that doomed the Articles of Confederation. Despite states-rights advocates losing battles to curb federal power in the Constitutional Convention, the Civil War, ending the Depression and LBJ's Great Society, President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy is being seized as another opportunity to chip away at this fundamental pillar in America's experiment in self-governance.

Two years ago yesterday, Dr. George Tiller was shot point-blank in his church and died instantly at the hands of a religious zealot with ties to the anti-abortion movement. "Dr. George Tiller was murdered ... by an anti-abortion extremist whose goal was to make abortion less available," noted Rachel Maddow last night. "And today, two years later, there is no abortion-provider in Wichita," where Tiller maintained his practice.