Federal Powers Under the Commerce Clause

Question 1

3 things Congress can regulate under the commerce clause

Answer 1

Channels of interstate commerce (roads, highways, rivers, railroads); instrumentalities of interstate commerce (people or things that operate or travel in channels of interstate commerce); activities that affect commerce (must substantially effect)

Question 2

Delegation Doctrine

Answer 2

• Delegation Doctrine allows congress to give administrative agency powers, but not delegate all of its law-making powers to it
• Congress cannot completely delegate its lawmaking ability to someone else like a private sector or independent agency. It is for Congress to enact laws

Question 3

The Shreveport Case

Answer 3

Texas railway carriers charged much higher rates for trains coming out of Shreveport, LA, than they did from Texas cities. These higher rates adversely affected the Shreveport travel.
Holding/Reasoning: can regulate intrastate railroad rates b/c they substantially affect interstate commerce

Question 4

Lottery Case

Answer 4

Federal Lottery Act is constitutional b/c congress’s power to regulate includes prohibiting power. The trafficking of lottery tickets across state lines constitutes interstate commerce that may be prohibited entirely by Congress under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.
(10th amendment argument fails b/c commerce clause is a power delegated to congress)

Question 5

National Labor Relations Board v. Jones

Answer 5

• Court upheld federal statute regulating labor law that allowed unions, collective bargaining and forbid unfair practices
• Overrules E.C. Knight and extends the power of regulation over manufacturing and production.
• switches to the effect on commerce, not the source of the injury

Question 6

United States v. Darby

Answer 6

• Congress has the power to regulate hours and wages of workers who are engaged in the production of goods destined for interstate commerce and can prohibit the shipment in interstate commerce of goods manufactured in violation of goods manufactured in violations of these regulations.

Question 7

Wickard v. Filburn

Answer 7

Wheat farmer fined for farming more than allotted amount from the Agricultural Adjustment Act.
-Regulation is upheld by the court b/c they look at the aggregate (if every wheat farmer started planting more than allowed, it would have a substantial effect on interstate commerce of wheat)

Question 8

Congress can lay and collect taxes

Answer 8

as long as its for the general welfare

Question 9

Congress’s power to tax and spend

Answer 9

is not limited to those enumerated in the Constitution, as long as its in furtherance of the general welfare

Question 10

Concurrent power

Answer 10

both federal and state governments tax citizens; shared power

Question 11

Modern view on 10th Amendment

Answer 11

Courts have abandoned the idea the 10th amendment is a limit on the power to tax; courts defer to Congress in the exercise to regulate commerce, taxing and spending

Question 12

United States v. Butler

Answer 12

Agricultural Adjustment Act taxed processing crops
SC puts a broad interpretation on the commerce clause + necessary and proper (good law)
-makes the act unconstitutional b/c the 10th amendment (OLD LAW)

Question 13

Chas C. Steward Machine Co. v. Davis

Answer 13

-A federal law that taxes employers to fund national welfare assistance, but grants a credit toward that same tax to employers who help fund state welfare assistance programs, does not impermissibly coerce the states. Congress has the power to uniformly tax employers of state and offer tax credits.
- Congress cannot enact a law at coerces states contrary to the autonomy they have under the 10th amendment, but this is an inducement not coercion.

Question 14

How can Congress induce a state to act?

Answer 14

Withholding federal funds (as long as whats being induced is not unconstitutional)

Question 15

How can Congress bribe states?

Answer 15

encouraging states to enact laws by giving them a financial incentive (ex: in South Dakota v. Dole, “if you raise the drinking age to 21, we’ll give you money for highway repair”)
cannot be so coercive it becomes compulsion

Question 16

Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States

Answer 16

Hotel refused to rent rooms to African Americans.
Holding/Reasoning:
1. Congress may prohibit discrimination in public accommodations under its authority under the commerce clause
2. The power of congress to promote interstate commerce incudes the power to regulate the local incidents, including local activities, which might have a substantial and harmful effect upon commerce
3. “If it is interstate commerce that feels the pinch, it does not matter how local the operation that applies the squeeze,” indicating that the “moral” purpose behind the law does not invalidate it.

Question 17

Rational Basis test

Answer 17

1. Whether Congress had a rational basis
2. Are the means reasonable and approportiate

Question 18

Aggregation

Answer 18

• CC regulation of intrastate activity may be upheld only where the activity being regulated is economic in nature (commercial)
• You cannot aggregate the effect of non-economic activities.

Question 19

Katzenbach v. McClung

Answer 19

Ollies BBQ in Atlanta refuses to serve African Americans, approx half the meat served was moved by interstate commerce
HOLDING: Commerce is impacted even if they don’t have interstate clients b/c less clients means less meat bought from out of state (Aggregate effect)

Question 20

Perez v. US

Answer 20

loansharking affects commerce b/c it reduces spending power of Americans, therefore can be regulated

Question 21

United States v. Lopez

Answer 21

Congress passed a law prohibiting the possesion firearms in a school zone, argued it can b/c of the commerce clause
HOLDING: Unconstititional
REASONING: too far removed from interstate commerce; not a commercial transaction so cannot aggregate (possession does not have to do with buying/selling guns)

Question 22

US v. Morrison

Answer 22

Domestic violence is not a commercial transaction, so cannot be regulated by Congress under the commerce clause

Question 23

Sebelius

Answer 23

Affordable Care Act required people to buy insurance or pay a fee.
HOLDING: The individual mandate contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 is unconstitutional under the commerce clause, but constitutional under the taxing power; The Medicaid expansion is an unconstitutional use of Congress’s spending powers.
REASONING: Individual mandate does not a commercial activity; cannot compel people to become active in commerce; States not given a choice they’re compelled to accept or risk losing existing Medicare funding

Question 24

Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority

Answer 24

-Upheld law regulating minimum labor standards and wages
-Overrules Usery
-The test for determining state immunity from federal regulation under the Commerce Clause is not whether the state activity sought to be regulated is a traditional state function, but rather whether the regulation as applied to the state activity is destructive of state sovereignty or violative of any constitutional provision.

Question 25

Hodel Test

Answer 25

• The federal statute at issue must regulate “states as states”
• Statute must “address matters that are indisputably ‘attributes of state sovereignty’
• State compliance with the federal obligation must directly impair the states’ ability to structure integral operations in areas of traditional government functions
• The relation of state and federal interests must not be such that the nature of the federal interest justifies state submission

Question 26

New York v. US

Answer 26

Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Amendment Act of 1985 is unconstitutional b/c “a choice between two unconstitutionally coercive regulatory techniques is no choice”
-If congress is going to bribe the states w/ financial incentives, must give states reasonable alternatives or else its coercion

Question 27

Printz v. United States

Answer 27

Brady Handgun Act commands state and local law enforcement to conduct background checks on prospective handgun purchasers
HOLDING: Unconstitutional
REASONING: Congress may not require states to legislate according to federal standards because doing so constitutes a commandeering of traditional state policy making functions.