Ramesh asks (in a non-testy fashion, to be sure): “In what serious sense does the replacement of a regime in which the federal government’s judicial branch says partial-birth abortion may not be banned by one in which the federal government says it is banned amount to a centralization of political power?” My answer: Because the constitutional justification for such an exercise of Congressional power is more difficult to contain. That is, if such an exercise of Congressional power is constitutional, so are many other heretofore impermissible exercises of power. (See also here.)