Constitutional Law I – Prof. Morrison
I. Basic Principle
A. The Constitution created the federal government
1. The Federal government has only the powers listed in (or implied by) the Constitution
2. States retain all of the other powers
II. Federal Legislative Power
A. Federal powers
1. Federal powers are found in:
a) Article I, section 8
b) Scattered around the remainder of the Constitution (Article IV, and Reconstruction Amendment (13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments))
c) In “enforcement clauses” to some (not all) amendments
2. Article I, section 8
a) Most commonly used powers:
(1) Commerce clause
(2) Taxing clause
(3) Spending clause
(4) Necessary and proper clause:
(a) It grants Congress the power to “make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing powers, and all other power vested by the Constitution in the Government of the United States”
(b) This clause does not vest regulatory or supervisory authority over any particular subject matters; rather, it guarantees a latitude of discretion in the exercise of all other granted powers (including those granted in other parts of the Constitution). By doing so, the Necessary and Proper Clause ensures that the particularized grants can be exercised completely and effectively.
(i) E.g. the Congress can regulate eminent domain as a means to ensure that the power to establish post office can be exercised completely and effectively.
b) Other powers in I:8:
(1) Various military powers
(2) Other specific powers
3. Other powers
a) Foreign relations powers Art. II
b) Power over federal property Art. IV. Sec. 3, para. 2.
4. Early Commerce Clause cases
a) Gibbons v. Ogden, broad interpretation of “commerce among the states” to include navigation
b) Later cases drew a sharp distinction between “manufacturing” (outside of federal power) and “commerce” (subject to federal regulation)
5. Early limits on commerce power
a) Federal government could only regulate:
(1) things “in commerce” Gibbons
(2) things “in the stream of commerce” The Daniel Ball; Shreveport Rate Case
(3) “instrumentalities” of commerce Shreveport Rate Case
b) States had exclusive power over everything else
6. Expansion of traditional view
a) Supreme Court recognized that some manufacturing processes were in “the stream of commerce” Jones & Laughlin Steel v. NLRB (1937)
b) It also allowed Congress to regulate products that crossed state lines, even
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(a) Conditions must be related to purpose of the grant South Dakota v. Dole
(b) Congress may place conditions on grants to state and local governments as long as the conditions are expressly stated and have some relationship to the purpose of the spending program.
d) Federal power to enforce 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
(1) Congress can adopt “appropriate legislation” to enforce, BUT
(a) 14th Amendment only covers “state action”-Congress may only regulate state and local governments, not private conducts.
(b) 13th is broader, but only deals with racial discrimination Jones v. Mayer Congress has the power under the 13th Amendment rationally to determine what are the badges and incidents of slavery and the authority to translate that determination into effective legislation
(c) It may only enforce the provisions of the Amendment, it may not modify them. City of Boerne v. Flores . All that Congress can do is act to prevent or remedy the violation of rights already recognized by the Courts
