In a rare fit of sanity, the Supreme Court of the United States has at last struck down a 1992 Federal ban on sports betting, ruling that Congress had no constitutional authority to tell states that they are not allowed let their citizens place bets on football games. This makes quite a bit of sense, given that there is nothing in the constitution that gives Congress the power to prevent people from spending their money however they want to. The 10th Amendment, the last sentence in the Bill of Rights that was agreed upon as a condition to the constitution’s ratification in 1790, says the following:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The power to stop people from placing bets was not delegated to the United States by the Constitution. Therefore the power to regulate sports betting is reserved to the States individually, or to the people directly, technically speaking. (That’ll be the day!) Few jurists care a whit about the 10th Amendment though, and has long been ridiculously mocked as a justification by racists to restart slavery. The 10th Amendment has long since been given up for dead. It was resurrected just briefly in this ruling, as follows:

As the Tenth Amendment confirms, all legislative power not conferred on Congress by the Constitution is reserved for the States. Absent from the list of conferred powers is the power to issue direct orders to the governments of the States…Thus, “Congress may not simply ‘commandeer the legislative process of the States by directly compelling them to enact and enforce a federal regulatory program.’