# Commerce Clause

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commerce-clause/47191>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 25, 2000, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commerce-clause/47191 "2000-12-25T22:37:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cogitoergosum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Cogitoergosum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cogitoergosum)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2000, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commerce-clause/47191/1 "2000-12-25T22:37:46Z")

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Sorry to burden everyone else with my research, but does anyone know where I might be able to find information on the history of the commerce clause of the constitution?

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**Author:** ![absoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc8723/32.png) [@absoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/absoul)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2000, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commerce-clause/47191/2 "2000-12-25T22:54:52Z")

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a general search on Google turned up several-  
[Google](http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=commerce+clause+constitution)

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**Author:** ![Nessy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f04885/32.png) [@Nessy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nessy)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2000, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commerce-clause/47191/3 "2000-12-26T02:03:37Z")

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Now that you got us here, what is it that’s interesting about it?

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2000, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commerce-clause/47191/4 "2000-12-26T05:45:49Z")

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The Commerce Clause has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to give the Federal Government a lot of powers. It’s been that way for a LONG time.

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**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2000, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commerce-clause/47191/5 "2000-12-26T05:48:54Z")

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Basically, the Commerce Clause is how the federal government justifies doing almost everything that it does.

Strictly, if a matter involves one state and one state only, it’s a matter for that state’s government to deal with.

The second that anything crosses a state line, be it a truck carrying toxic waste, a telephone call made from suburban Connecticut into Manhattan, etc., it becomes a federal matter.

It’s called the “Commerce Clause” because it’s usually done with regard to interstate commerce. This was helpful in the Civil Rights era because it was stretched to a point where if someone was restricted on making/spending a dollar in Mississippi, that dollar couldn’t be made/spent in Alabama, etc.

I’m sure another constitutional expert, who hopefully has drank fewer beers than I tonight, will explain this better if you’re still unclear.

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**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\
**Post date:** [December 26, 2000, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commerce-clause/47191/6 "2000-12-26T23:09:17Z")

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The clause in question is

> [@](#):
>
> _Article I, Section 8_  
> To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;

And as others have indicated, it has been stretched to all kinds of things that are not, in the strictest sense, commerce “among the several states”. However, there have been a couple recent decisions by the Supreme Court that put a limit to this stretching. One that I recall was the voiding of a federal law that allowed a rape victim to sue her attacker in federal court.