Federal Commerce Power

Question 1

Four Broad Categories of activities that Congress can Regulate:

Answer 1

1) Channels (of interstate commerce)
2) Instrumentalities - people, machines, and other ‘things’ used in carrying out commerce
3) Articles moving in interstate commerce
4) Activities that “Substantially affect” commerce.

Question 2

Channels (of interstate commerce)

Answer 2

Highways, waterways, air traffic. Even if traffic on waterway is completely “Intrastate.”

Question 3

Instrumentalities

Answer 3

people, machines, and other ‘things’ used in carrying out commerce. (Congress could probably say that every truck must have a specific safety device (even if it was made and used within one state).

Question 4

Activities that “Substantially affect” commerce.

Answer 4

Congress may regulate activities that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce.

Question 5

Commerce Clause

Answer 5

Article I, section 8, clause 3, it confers upon Congress power to regulate three different types of commerce: “Commerce with foreign Nations, [commerce] among the several States, and [commerce] with the Indian Tribes.”

Question 6

Congressional Actions regulating Commerce are Controlling: Gibbons v. Ogden 22 U.S. 1 (1824) (dealing with steamboats between NY and NJ State)

Answer 6

Congressional licensing of Steamboats conflicts with NY legislation granting exclusive right to operate steamboats in NY waters.

Rule:

1) Congressional actions regulating commerce are controlling.
2) State regulations must yield to conflicting federal law.
3) it is possible for states to pass regulations that may affect some activities related to interstate commerce (But must be based on another power granted to the states..e.g. police power)

Question 7

State Action Regulating Commerce (Elements to Consider)

Answer 7

• Categories of activities
• Direct / Indirect effects
• The Protective Principle
• Streams or Flows of Commerce

Question 8

Carter v. Carter Coal Co., 298 U.S. 238 (1936). - The Bituminous Coal Conservation Act authorized coal producers and coal miners to establish a code setting maximum hours and minimum wages for coal miners.

Answer 8

• Production is Local
• Regulating production (Working conditions, Wages, etc..) only indirectly affects IC.
• Working conditions, hours, wages = all local evils over which the federal government has no legislative control.

Question 9

Protective Principle

Answer 9

INTRA-State commerce can be regulated when necessary to protect instrumentalities of INTER-State commerce.
(SCOTUS UPHELD an order requiring the affected railroads to charge the same rate for interstate shipments as for intrastate shipments.)
SCOTUS UPHELD an order requiring certain safety features on all railcars.

Question 10

United States v. Darby

Answer 10

Court Upheld - Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) specified maximum hours and minimum wages for workers engaged in producing goods for interstate commerce and prohibited the interstate shipment of good produced under NON-COMPLIANT Standards.

Reasoning:
1) conditions of local employment had a substantial effect on interstate commerce. 2) The alternative was to treat the wage and hour provisions as means reasonably related to the end of banning the interstate shipment of goods manufactured under nonconforming labor conditions.

Question 11

Final (cumulative) Economic Effects of Activities

Answer 11

Even activities that are purely local (Farm Production for local consumption) may be regulated if it exerts a substantial effect on interstate commerce.

Question 12

Class of Activities

Answer 12

Congress may use its commerce power to regulate a “class of activities [without] proof that the particular intrastate activity” has an effect on interstate commerce. So long as the regulated activity (considered as a class and taken as a whole) has a substantial effect on interstate commerce, and the affected person is “a member of the class” that is regulated, the regulation is a valid use of the interstate commerce power.

Question 13

Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, 379 U.S. 241 (1964), Upheld the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the federal law that prohibits racial discrimination by private persons in public accommodations.

Answer 13

• Racial Discrimination in public lodging has a negative effect on the interstate movement of people and goods, a rational conclusion.
• Valid Commercial motivation exists = Constitutional.

Question 14

U.S. v. Lopez (Making it a federal offense for a student to carry a gun onto a campus)

Answer 14

• Federal Gun-Free Zones Act Exceeded Congress’s Commerce clause regulatory powers.
• Commerce clause is not a general grant of police power.

Question 15

The Standard of Review: Commerce Clause Regulations`

Answer 15

Court will defer to congressional judgement over scope of CC if:

(1) Congress could have rationally determined that the regulated activity either (a) substantially affects interstate commerce, or
(b) is actually a part of interstate commerce (a “channel” or “instrumentality” of interstate commerce);

(2) the congressional determination is rational; and
(3) the chosen means are reasonably adapted to the legitimate end.

Question 16

United States v. Morrison, 529 U.S. 598 (2000),

Answer 16

Gender motivated violence against women does not substantially effect interstate commerce to enforce the Civil damages remedy of the VAWA.

Question 17

Duty to avoid Constitutional Issues

Answer 17

If a Statute can be interpreted in such a way as to avoid constitutional issues, it is the courts duty to do so.

Question 18

Gonzales v. Raich

Answer 18

• Locally Cultivated and consumed Marijuana can be regulated by Congress’ (controlled substances act) even if uses comply with state laws.
• Activity would substantially effect the nationwide market for pot.

Question 19

Substantive Immunity (Traditional Domain of States)

Answer 19

Principle that states may not be regulated as to certain substantive functions they perform.
Functions they perform as State Government: “fire prevention, police protection, sanitation, public health, and parks and recreation.”

Exceptions:
- State’s acting as proprietors of business.
-

Question 20

Substantive Immunity Test (Overruled in Garcia v. San Antonio)

Answer 20

1) must be a showing that the challenged statute regulates the “States as States.”
2) the federal regulation must address matters that are indisputably “attributes of state sovereignty.”
3) compliance with the federal law would impair States’ ability “to structure integral operations in areas of traditional government functions.”

4) successful challenges fail if “the federal interest advanced [by the challenged law] justifies state submission.”

Question 21

New York v. United States

Answer 21

• Federal gov. may not order a state to enact a particular legislation.

Fed. Gov. may provide incentives for states to regulate in a certain way, by tying funding to acceptance of t Fed. plan

Question 22

Printz v. United States

Answer 22

Fed Gov may not issue directives require states to address particular problems, or command state officers, or political subdivisions to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program.

Question 23

10th Amendment Limit on Congress’ Commerce Power:

Answer 23

“powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Question 24

10th Amendment Violations (Examples)

Answer 24

• Interfering with State’s Law making processes (Congress directly compels State Legislature to enact and enforce Federal Regulatory Program)
• Compelling State Government’s Executive branch to perform functions. (Congress cannot order local sheriff’s to perform background checks on gun applicants)