CONSTITUTIONAL LAW SPRING 2008 – PROF. FISCHER
Outline for Class 9: Commerce Clause I: History of Interpretation of
the Commerce Clause from Gibbons v. Ogden to 1936
I.
Central Themes: Fitting this topic into the course
II.
Constitutional Text
A.
B.
C.
D.
III.
Does the Constitution contain guidelines for its own
interpretation? If so, where?
Commerce Clause at Article I § 8 cl. 3. It provides that
“The Congress shall have Power . . . to regulate Commerce
with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with
the Indian Tribes.”
Vague Terms: “Commerce”, “among the several States”
Tenth Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States,
are reserved to the States respectively, or to the People.”
Era 1: Early Nineteenth Century Interpretation of the Commerce
Clause: up to 1890
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) [C p. 113]
A. Meaning of “Commerce”?
B. Meaning of “among the several States”?
C. Does the Tenth Amendment limit congressional power?
IV.
Era 2: Interpretation of the Commerce Clause from 1895-1936
A.
B.
C.
Meaning of “Commerce”: United States v. E.C. Knight Co.
(1895) [ C p. 117]; Carter v. Carter Coal Co. (1936) [C p. 118]
Meaning of “among the several States”: Schechter Poultry
Corp. v. United States (1935) [C p. 122] (effects test); The
Shreveport Rates Cases (1914) [C p. 120] ; Railroad
Retirement Board v. Alton R.R. Co. (1935) [C p. 124]
Does the Tenth Amendment limit congressional power?
Champion v. Ames (1903) [C p. 128] (“The Lottery Case”);
Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918) (“The Child Labor Case”)[C
p. 125]
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