Taxes as a means of control  The Constitution limits the federal
government’s power, but it does give Congress the power to levy
taxes.  So Congress has historically used its taxing authority
to pre-empt state laws and to exercise control over its
citizens’ behavior.  George Will discusses an essay by David B.
Kopel and Trevor Burrus entitled “Sex, Drugs, Alcohol, Gambling
and Guns: The Synergistic Constitutional Effects.”From George
Will:   Its “effect”? The effect of suppressing the drug
business obviously was its purpose. Nevertheless, the court held
that even if “motives” other than raising revenue really
explained Congress’s exercise of its enumerated power, the law
still could not be invalidated “because of the supposed motives
which induced it.”  “Supposed”? The court’s refusal to reach a
reasonable conclusion about the pretext Congress used in this
case for trespassing on territory reserved to the states enabled
the federal government to begin slipping its constitutional
leash. In 1922, Chief Justice