Okay, here's the situation.

There's a problem at the farmer's market.

Apparently, there have been a lot of problems with watermelons.

Some of the watermelons have spiders in them.

Also, occasionally, people are bringing in counterfeit watermelons.

Some near-do-wells are painting basketballs green and trying to pawn

them off as fruit. Yeah, it's pretty funny when someone tries to cut open a green watermelon with a

knife, turns out to be a soccer ball hilariously pops, but it's a clear and present danger

to the health of our beloved farmers market.

So the state legislature springs into action. They pass a law authorizing the county sheriff to regulate the farmer's market.

But then, a few months later, the sheriff says, great, I am hereby taxing all out-of-town

watermelons moving forward.

If you were from outside the county, your watermelons are subject to my watermelon tax.

And people say, now wait a minute, sheriff, the state legislature authorized you to regulate the farmers market

you could theoretically inspect watermelons maybe ban those guys spray painting basketballs

i don't know restrict hours of operation have a deputy on hand with a hammer to whack spiders

but that's not the same thing as getting to make up

your own taxes. The sheriff says, yes, it does. Look, if I want, I can set up road blockades.

If I really wanted to, I could shut down the entire farmer's market. Now, if I have the ability

to do that, close roads, send everybody

home, it goes without saying that I can also tax watermelons. Taxing watermelons is less

onerous than banning watermelons. So if the state legislature has authorized me to regulate

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