Non-Subpoena Subpoena

Shocking! Outrageous!

When is a subpoena not a subpoena, and therefore doesn't need to pass Fourth Amendment protections? When it's for the children, as Skip explains:

There is no "probable cause" for the FTC to forcibly search any company under the pretext of preparing a report for Congress. Indeed, the legislative language authorizing the report only maintains that Congress "is concerned about the growing rate of childhood and adolescent obesity and the food industry's marketing practices for these populations." Congressional "concern" about a subject beyond the federal government's enumerated powers–the framers gave Congress the power to fix the "standard of weights and measures," not the weights of children–is not probable cause.

Bonus points awarded for the enumerated powers funny. I get the giggles thinking about Congress defining the weight of children as a unit of measure. And then I realize how unfunny it is at a comic level, not just as social commentary. Sigh.