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Interstate Commerce & The Constitution

Under the Articles of Confederation, states would impose tariffs on each other. The Constitution solved this issue with the interstate commerce clause. The clause ended the practice of imposing tariffs and granted the power to regulate interstate commerce to Congress. How has the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution been interpreted since then in the Interestate Commerce Act of 1887 and beyond?

0:10 when the United States separated from Britain during the Revolutionary War the first national government was established under the Articles of Confederation the Articles created a minimal national government that had little ability to bend the will of the states toward the national interest this limitation of federal authority became apparent when several states in the new

0:32 nation became involved in trade disputes in the years prior to the passage of the Constitution in 1789 states routinely passed tariffs on each other if a merchant in one state brought a good across a state border the merchandise was subject to attacks collectible by a customs agent tariffs caused ill-will

0:53 among the states as trade wars developed meanwhile the National Congress was unable to get all the states to agree to a standard tariff on imported goods to raise tax revenue and government was deeply in debt from the Revolutionary War and needed the revenue the national government under the Articles could not do anything about these problems leaders

1:13 became concerned that the tension could undo the Union just before the Constitutional Convention met in 1787 James Madison wrote a pamphlet called the vices of the political system in that essay he wrote that quote the practice of many states in restricting commercial intercourse with other states and putting their productions and

1:34 manufacturers on the same footing as with foreign nations they’re not contrary to the federal Articles is certainly averse to the spirit of the Union and tends to beget retaliating regulations they are destructive of the general harmony this was one of the reasons some founders supported a new federal government that would replace the

1:55 Articles of Confederation and so it came to pass that the Constitution was ratified in 1789 now one of the most significant new powers of the federal government under the Constitution was the power of Congress to regulate trade as outlined in article 1 section 8 of the Constitution the document specified that Congress had the power to quote

2:17 regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states and with the Indian tribes furthermore Congress but not the states was also authorized to levy quote taxes duties imposts and excises upon ratification of the Constitution States could no longer regulate trade among themselves only

2:38 Congress now had that authority but even here the power was limited in that federal taxes had to be uniform across all the states Congress retained sole authority to regulate trade with other nations nonetheless in future eras including today the Commerce Clause is used to justify almost any congressional regulation of the economy in many

3:00 congressional laws this appears to be at variance with a narrow and defined purpose of the Commerce Clause article 1 section 8 at the time it was written its purpose was to end state tariffs and duties to prevent in concert with other articles in the Constitution Congress from discriminating against trade from any particular state and to give

3:20 Congress the sole power of imposing taxes on foreign goods the development of the vast administrative and regulatory state in the twentieth and now the twenty-first centuries came because Congress and the courts felt that the commerce clause of article 1 section 8 of the Constitution could be interpreted much more broadly than it initially was in the 1780s and 1790s

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Congress' power to regulate interstate commerce, granted in the Commerce Clause, is often invoked as justification for laws regulating a wide variety of economic activities. How much power does the Commerce Clause allow the federal government to have over the states? This lesson examines this question by looking at the principle behind this clause, the Founders intentions, and how the Supreme Court has interpreted the clause throughout American History.

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During the first century of the United States, the Congress acted upon the powers delegated to it by the Constitution, particularly those enumerated in Article I, Section 8. While this entailed some regulation by the national government, most economic policies were enacted at the state and local levels, and the federal government exercised little regulation of the economy. In the decades that followed the Civil War, the scope of power of Congress would grow exponentially. This expansion of power was fueled by new interpretations of the Commerce Clause in Article I, Section 8, which empowered Congress to “regulate interstate commerce.” However in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries it was interpreted to justify a regulatory state that encompassed almost every aspect of American public life. These interpretations were confirmed and expanded by a series of Supreme Court decisions. The Supreme Court allowed Congress to exercise new powers in the name of commerce and to delegate its regulatory authority to the executive. In recent years there has been more resistance to this course of expansion. The Supreme Court more narrowly defined what commerce is and restricted the scope of congressional power. This has been further advanced by rules changes in the House of Representatives that require new bills to be more closely aligned with the enumerated powers of the Constitution.