Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor cut straight to the heart of Chiles v. Salazar with one hypothetical: If a dietitian decides to help anorexics starve themselves, can the government stop them?

That might seem like a useless question — obviously, no dietitian would do that, and obviously, if they did, the government should ban it. But while a law might be unnecessary in practice, exploring imaginary extremes can help us understand principles and their limits.

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