The "interstate commerce clause" has never been understood by thoughtful people as allowing absolutely anything to cross state lines. States are welcome to prohibit all kinds of items that would not be in the interest of the public health or safety to allow in the state. Hawai'i, for example, prohibits the import of snakes. There are no snakes in Hawai'i. There is no rabies in Hawai'i; thus the import of any animals are subject to quarantine. Is this unreasonable, or is it a recognition that goods and goals are often in conflict, and, moreover that actual public health and safety does and should trump?

This also seems to me an excellent application of conservative principles that so many in OMNI are always trumpeting: the state knows better than the Federal government what will be helpful in ensuring the state's health and safety.



Well said. ^

The CA Border checks do not violate interstate commerce because they have been specifically authorized by Congress as part of an attempt to safeguard agriculture.

I am happy to hear that they are no longer being staffed, because they were quite ineffective, especially for personal vehicles.

Where'd you get that from? The five main ones are most definitely open and staffed.

I'm also not sure why you think they were ineffective. In 2003, these inspection stations confiscated 16,000 some lots of prohibited or pest-infested plants/fruits from private vehicles.

Every time but one that I've driven through the checkpoint, the staff waved me through without even stopping. The one time the car was stopped, they asked if we had any fruits or vegetables, we said no, and they waved us on.

That doesn't seem especially effective. Clearly, the system could be fixed by making everyone remove their shoes as part of the check.

If you have California plates, which I'm gussing you do, it's highly likely you'll just get waved through. That's simply a matter of them selecting the vehicles most likely to be bringing in fruits/plants from out of state. If they saw an ice chest in your car and you had out of state plates, it would likely be a different story.

Don't give 'em any ideas.

A few stations are still open, per other posters.

But if all it takes is one insect SOMEWHERE on a vehicle, then it's a lost cause. I'm not aware that (1) all "illegal" fruit was found, (2) all "illegal" fruit was a problem, (3) all cars were put through a washer to remove insects from tire rims and elsewhere, (4) oranges purchased in NV were grown in NV rather than being imported from CA, and (5) so forth.

I always tended to bypass the stations (easily done in most cases) just to avoid answering questions. Once, I was asked about firewood.

The main mission of the ag. stations appeared to involve produce truck inspections.

Indeed, a dirty car tended to get more attention, like after a transcon. road trip.

Now, before 1966, the stations handed out free CA road maps. That was nice.