Indeed, Wickard v. Filburn is one of the worst decisions ever by the Supreme Court. By 1942, the Court was populated entirely by statists who were happy to see the federal government control almost every aspect of economic life in the name of “progress.” It was the groundwork for the 2005 atrocity Gonzalez v. Raich, the case where a very sick woman wanted to be allowed (as California law permitted) to consume marijuana grown exclusively for her within the state. The feds prosecuted her for violating the drug laws and she argued (Georgetown law professor Randy Barnett wrote the brief) that the federal government had no authority over a purely intra-state matter. Nevertheless, the Court hauled Wickard out of storage and used it as precedent to rule that the feds could prosecute her.
Decisions like Wickard v. Filburn and Gonzalez v. Raich ought to be understood as modern day equivalents of Dred Scott.
