To the government, endangered animals trump property rights

Despite its limited applications on paper, the Constitution’s commerce clause has given the federal government carte blanche to regulate whatever it wants. Congress’s power over interstate commerce, commerce between the states, has been greatly expanded to the point where it applies to almost anything of which the government can dream.

Apparently, those dreams can even include things that don’t involve more than one state and have no bearing on commerce, such as animals that live just in one state.