[Mr Downtown]

Don't get blinded by the term natural law used in the cited law review article. Illinois Central is still good law, and I know of no Supreme Court cases questioning it. I find myself wondering if you've ever even read it.

Congress has only the specific powers enumerated in Article 1 Section 8. The Commerce Clause has been stretched quite a bit, but as noted in U.S. v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549 (1995), that power is not infinitely elastic. But as a bedrock principle of federalism, Congress is irrelevant here. Since the State of Illinois lacks the authority to alienate the waters of Lake Michigan, it cannot delegate that authority to the City of Chicago; nor can it grant that authority to Congress.