*National Commerce Power Flashcards
- Constitution:
Article I, § 8, Clause 3: US Congress has power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with Indian Tribes
- Summary of current law-
3 Relevant determining factors:
i) (1) Crossing state lines: power at its max when regulating anything that crosses state lines.
ii) (2) Reach intrastate transaction that have a substantial effect on interstate commerce(Jones
& Laughlin / Darby)
iii) (3) Congress has greater power over so called instrumentalities of interstate commerce
(Heart of Atlanta)
Aggregation principle:
Can take all activities into account to reach interstate commerce. (Wickard)
Motives:
Congress can regulate under the Commerce Clause for reason that are not business, commercial or economic. However, if Congress is using moral, social, or cultural reasons Congress has a higher burden to justify its actions.
i) Suggestion commercial motive not required: Champion, Katzenback, Darby, Comstock
ii) Lack of commercial motivation a mark against federal power: Lopez, Morrison
Put Lopez and Morrison together:
Where the primary concern seems to be non-economic, there is no jurisdictional element, there are no strong findings and the connection is too attenuated, there are limits.