Abstract
This work explains that there are instances where congressional intent may necessitate immediate or sporadic regulation of local or intrastate activities. However, when Congress does act or takes steps to regulate a necessary local or intrastate activity, it must do so only if it is constitutionally proper and when it does not lead to the unfettered accumulation of states’ plenary powers and does not violate the enumeration of constitutional powers. This work bifurcates the U.S. Supreme Court cases on the Commerce Clause into the formalist and realist approaches as provided under Article 1. Section 8, Clause 3 of the Constitution. It also explains the relevance of those two approaches and how they have affected the Court’s decision in the seminal case of United States v. Morrison. This work further amplifies the reasoning of the Supreme Court in Morrison—that it is more important for Congress to stay within its constitutionally enumerated powers when discharging its duties than overreaching its constitutional limits to regulate a noneconomic activity like domestic violence. Although it is factual that domestic violence affects interstate commerce, it should be regulated under a state’s police power and not under the Commerce Clause. This work reasons that, in some instances, where Congress’s regulation falls within the outer limits of its powers, congressional statutes will almost always face legal constraints and the possibility of being held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, irrespective of any congressional intent. This paper explains that the Supreme Court did not give substantial weight to the actual congressional findings of the economic effects of domestic violence on interstate commerce in the case of Morrison. The Court emphasizes the values of constitutional enumeration of governmental powers to decide that Congress acted beyond its Commerce Clause limits to only regulate the channels, instrumentalities, people, and activities that have substantial economic effects on interstate commerce.
Recommended Citation
Olawale Olumodimu,
Federalism: Analyses of Economic Effects of Domestic Violence on Interstate Commerce Under the U.S. Constitution,
69
St. Louis U. L.J.
(2024).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj/vol69/iss1/7