{"id":702,"date":"2023-06-04T17:31:47","date_gmt":"2023-06-04T17:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/commerce-clause-eileen-li\/"},"modified":"2023-06-04T17:32:12","modified_gmt":"2023-06-04T17:32:12","slug":"commerce-clause-eileen-li","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/commerce-clause-eileen-li\/","title":{"rendered":"Commerce Clause &#8211; Eileen Li"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Video<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"entry-content-asset\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Eileen Li - Commerce Clause\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wVdMxZv3cqs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Written Component<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><p><b>Context<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1781, five years after the colonies became free from British rule, the Articles of Confederation were implemented. This document was an agreement between the 13 states that attempted to establish the functions of the national government. The Articles allowed each state to have power over their own trade. They worked independently and competitively against each other, and even established trade barriers. Congress was prohibited from regulating any commerce, so the rising inflation rates could not be controlled, and America\u2019s economy grew weak. In response to these economic problems, a convention was held in 1789.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Common interpretation<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Commerce Clause was formed here, which gave Congress the power \u201cto regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.\u201d This clause is commonly interpreted as giving Congress power to regulate international and interstate commerce, and trade with Indian Tribes, as well as prohibit states from interfering with Congress\u2019 decisions.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Matters of Debate<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, the undefined meanings of the words \u201cto regulate\u201d, \u201ccommerce\u201d and \u201camong the several States\u201d make this clause open to interpretation. For example, in the case of Gibbons v. Ogden, the word \u201ccommerce\u201d was argued to include people, not just goods. Thomas Gibbons, given permission by the federal government to operate steamboats between New York City and the New Jersey coast, sued Aaron Ogden, who was backed up by the State of New York to do the same, after Gibbons was denied access to these waterways. In the end, the Court ruled in Gibbon\u2019s favor. The argument was that the definition of \u201ccommerce\u201d included the people carried in steamboats, so steamboats would be considered as commerce, and the powers of Congress from the Commerce Clause could be applied. The reasoning of Chief Justice Marshall was that \u201ccommerce\u201d was not only buying and selling, but also intercourse and thus navigation.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another matter of debate was introduced in United States v. Darby, where the meanings of \u201cto regulate\u201d and \u201camong the several States\u201d were expanded. The FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) was passed in 1938, and set minimum wages, maximum hours, etc. Darby, a lumber manufacturer, was arrested after shipping lumber out of state while violating the FLSA. In this case, the Court reaffirmed this Act to be constitutional, which gave Congress the power to prohibit manufacturing goods inside states with the FLSA. Another reason why Congress was given this power was because intrastate commerce would affect interstate commerce, which the government was already in charge of by the Commerce Clause. Previously, the common interpretations of \u201cto regulate\u201d and \u201camong the several States\u201d led to Congress regulating commerce between two or more states. However, these meanings were expanded in the case of United States v. Darby, giving Congress the power to regulate interstate and now intrastate commerce.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Significance<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The concepts of the Commerce Clause connect to some ideas of early modern enlightenment philosophers such as Rousseau, as they both emphasized the importance of a strong central government. Personally, I would not change this clause because I think this idea is extremely important. If Congress wasn\u2019t in charge of states\u2019 trade, the free market wouldn\u2019t exist, and America\u2019s economy would worsen.<\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1781, five years after the colonies became free from British rule, the Articles of Confederation were implemented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5191,"featured_media":689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[202,79,210,422,830,26,46,831,832,835,834,205,833],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-article-1","tag-clause","tag-commerce","tag-commerce-clause","tag-commerce-clause-eileen-li","tag-constitution","tag-constitution-project","tag-eileen","tag-eileen-li","tag-eileen-li-constitution-project","tag-interstate-trade","tag-li","tag-trade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dalton.org\/theconstitution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}