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Commerce Clause
Article I, Section 8



  • Gonzales V. Raich, et al.: The Supremes Get It Wrong, Again
    - D. T. Armentano, June 8, 2005 [LewRockwell.com]

  • The Court, Federalism, and the Free Market
    - D.T. Armentano, June 7, 2005 [Mises]

  • Drawing a line in the sand
    "For decades Congress and the courts have used the Constitution's 'Commerce Clause' to justify federal meddling of every kind. Finally some serious second thoughts from the judiciary." [Forbes Magazine]

  • Rape, Slavery, Booze, and Interstate Commerce - "The U.S. Supreme Court created a mild panic among liberals when it ruled, a few weeks ago, that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution is finite. In striking down the Violence Against Women Act, which authorized women to sue their rapists in federal courts, a narrow majority of the Court took the reactionary radical right-wing position that rape is not a form of interstate commerce." - Joseph Sobran, June 21, 2000 [LewRockwell.com]

  • On the Commerce Clause - John Randolph Tucker
    An excerpt from The Constitution of the United States: A Critical Discussion of its Genesis, Development, and Interpretation.

  • Exploring the Constitution, Part 9: Regulating Interstate Commerce; the Lopez Case - Americans should pray that the Supreme Court's decision in the Lopez case signals a turn toward curbing Congress' abuse of the commerce clause. Then they should work to replace those in Congress who continue the abuse.

  • The Commerce Clause [Understanding American Property Rights] - great resource that explores such topics as Navigable Waters and the Commerce Clause and Regulation of Fish and Wildlife. - "The federal government has no authority to enact uniform national legislation merely on the basis that an issue involves more than one State. Barring a legitimate nexus in interstate commerce, States may settle differences or form agreements by interstate compact - subject to approval by Congress, or by Supreme Court adjudication."

  • The Commerce Clause as a Limit on Congressional Power to Protect the Environment
    Several times during the 1990s the Supreme Court struck down federal enactments as exceeding Congress' power under the Commerce Clause or Tenth Amendment. This report briefly reviews three of these decisions. - Robert Meltz, March 12, 1999 [National Council for Science and the Environment]

  • Taking Federalism Seriously: Lopez and the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act
    "As has been the case for decades, the issue of abortion continues to inspire political battles and proposals for legislative and constitutional change. But the ritualized debate over the subject has missed an important development: since the Supreme Court's landmark decision in United States v. Lopez, it is now reasonable to ask where Congress might get the power to regulate abortion in the first place. Lopez, after all, underscored the point that our federal government is a limited one, restricted to those powers enumerated under the Constitution. Under the plain logic of Lopez, the argument for a congressional power to regulate abortion under the Interstate Commerce Clause seems dubious at best." - Fall 1997

  • Net-Regulation Laws Ruled Unconstitutional
    "New York state's legislation to protect kids from Net smut is overturned as a violation of the Constitution's commerce clause." - Rebecca Vesely, June 20, 1997 [Wired]



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Mark Valenti's Liberty Page created and updated by Mark D. Valenti from
September 1999 through