#Justice Thomas’ Pot Rebuke and other commentary

Libertarian: Justice Thomas’ Pot Rebuke

Sixteen years after the Supreme Court ruled the federal marijuana ban applies even when individual states have legalized it, Justice Clarence Thomas “is back with another blast” at the federal government’s “half-in, half-out regime that simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana,” reports Reason’s Damon Root. Though the ban is “rarely ­enforced,” businesses are “at odds with the Internal Revenue Service over whether or not ‘their intrastate marijuana operations will be treated like any other enterprise that is legal under state law.’ ” Since “the feds are no longer regulating the marijuana market the way they said they would” 16 years ago, Thomas says “a prohibition on intrastate use or cultivation of marijuana may no longer be necessary or proper.”

Culture critic: Tolkien Wasn’t Woke

The “once-venerable Tolkien Society” is making a “misguided descent into contemporary pieties,” laments Bradley J. Birzer at National Review. Its upcoming annual conference will examine J. R. R. Tolkien’s work through “the most pressing concerns of the modern and woke left — diversity, inclusivity and, above all, sexuality,” with such topics as “Gondor in Transition: A Brief Introduction to Transgender Realities in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ ” and “ ‘Something Mighty Queer’: Destabilizing Cishetero Amatonormativity in the Works of Tolkien.” But “Tolkien’s work transcends ‘wokeness.’ ” A new Amazon LOTR series will reportedly ­“depict a rather sexualized Middle Earth, having been influenced by ‘Game of Thrones.’ ” Too bad: “Contrary to what the woke crowd might contend (or pretend), all of Tolkien’s mythology was rooted in his deep and abiding Christian faith.”

Conservative: Watch the Race-Theory Wars

“The defenders of critical race theory frequently create a maze of distinctions,” Peter Wood warns at Spectator World: They pretend it “has nothing to do with” the 1619 Project, Ibram X. Kendi or the diversity, equity and inclusion curricula imposed in many schools. Yet the public “fully understands that the basic message of CRT is that America is ‘systemically racist,’ that white people hoarding their privileges is the engine of systemic racism and that nothing short of a total transformation of American society can bring about ‘racial justice.’ ” And “for once, the numbers and the ­energy are on the side of those who seek to uphold traditional values and accurate history. This . . . has substantial political implications for the 2022 midterm elections,” since the Biden administration is pushing critical-race-theory trainings across the federal government.

Foreign desk: China’s Doubtful Economic Future

China’s economic growth despite Beijing’s repression suggests Milton Friedman got it wrong in 2003 when he predicted the country would grow freer as its economy became more capitalistic, notes The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn. Yet Friedman “was never as deterministic as sometimes portrayed.” Besides, “the story of capitalism in China is far from over”: Beijing faces “significant constraints, including a rapidly aging society,” and its actions in Hong Kong don’t “inspire confidence” about its ­“appreciation for international financial centers.” Meanwhile, President Biden pushes big-spending plans “to win the global competition with China.” Yet “surely the Friedman prescription” for a freer private economy would work better than “a paler version” of China’s state capitalism.

From the Right: Teach Teens Gratitude

“Gratitude may no longer be part of the lives of young Americans,” worries Jeremy Adams at Public Discourse. That’s concerning, because gratitude “allows us to appreciate how things are, what has already been given, and how blessed human life is because of people and actions of the past.” The “whole hodgepodge of values that young Americans now embrace” tends to “breed a spiritual sickness that shows itself in outrage and a sense of victimhood toward supposed impersonal historical forces and rigid hierarchies.” The pandemic’s end “is an ideal time to teach our young people that gratitude is always appropriate, no matter how flawed the world may be.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board