In A. L. A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935) the Court held that the Live Poultry Code promulgated pursuant to the National Industrial Recovery Act was an unconstitutional regulation of intrastate commerce. The Court reasoned that because all actions the Schechters took violating the code took place after the ___ had reached their final destination of NY, the transactions were not “in” interstate commerce.
In United States v. Lopez (1995) the
Court held that the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 ___ Congress’s authority under the Constitution “to regulate Commerce . . . among the several States.” The Court said that to hold otherwise would mean that there is no “activity by an individual that Congress is without power to regulate.”
In McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
the Court reasoned that the ___ amendment does not bar Congress from exercising implied powers and that
through the Supremacy Clause “the American people have declared their constitution, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, to be supreme.” Therefore the “states have no power, by taxation or otherwise, to retard, impede, burden, or in any manner control the operations of the constitutional laws enacted by Congress to carry into execution the powers vested in the general government.”
In Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association (2018) the Court held that the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) prohibition of states’ ___ of laws criminalizing sports betting violates NJ’s state sovereignty under the Constitution.
The ___ federalism approach to the relationship between the national and state governments is essentially a states’ rights view: that states and national government are coequal sovereigns; the
Constitution is a compact between the states and a contract between the states and the federal government; that
states empower the central government and are not subservient to the federal government; that
the 10th Amendment creates an “enclave” of states’ rights that Congress may not invade—especially if Congress encroaches on a traditional state function; and that the necessary and proper clause is to be read narrowly. Describing this view of federalism, with examples of times the Court explicitly or implicitly endorsed this view from the cases we covered in class, would be a good essay question.
The Court held in United States v. E. C. Knight Co. (1895) that sugar ___ for export to another State is not an article of interstate commerce and thus not subject to regulation by Congress (via the Sherman Anti-Trust Act) passed pursuant to the commerce clause. The Court reasoned that if the national power extends to ___ goods, agriculture, mining, etc., that eventually reach interstate commerce, “comparatively little of business operations and affairs would be left for state control.”
The 16th Amendment states “The Congress shall have power to lay and collect ___ on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.” (Describing this Amendment, how it came about, and the cases that led up to its passage would be a good essay question.)
In Scott v. Sanford (1857), the Taney court infamously held that a person whose ancestors were imported into this country and sold as slaves was not included in the word “___” in the Constitution and thus could not be entitled to “the privilege of suing in a court of the United States. . . .” This decision was overturned by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution.
In Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985) the Court held that state ___ does not prohibit the application of the overtime and minimum-wage requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act to the city transit authority, overturning its ruling in National League of Cities v. Usery (1976).
During the American Industrial Revolution--1890s to 1930s
the Supreme Court’s decisions often favored ___ business interests by invalidating federal laws that regulated commerce and the economy in the name of states’ rights and the 10th Amendment.
The form of government that divides governmental power between national and state governments in the United States is called ___.
This In Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association (2018) the Court explained that the “___” doctrine set out in New York v. United States (1992) and Printz v. United States (1997) is important:
1) to maintain a “healthy balance of power between the States and the Federal Government [which reduces] the risk of tyranny and abuse from either front.’”
2) to promote political accountability (making clear to the voter who to blame)
3) to prevent Congress from shifting costs of federal regulation to the states.
In NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation (1937) the Court held that the National Labor Relations Act, and the NLRB’s application thereof to remedy retaliation against workers engaging in ___ organizing activities at the steel plant in Pennsylvania, is a valid exercise of congressional authority under the commerce clause. This case marked a Court shift to allowing state and federal legislation intended to regulate business and improve the failing economy.
Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution stating “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States" is known as the power to ___.
In Alden v. Maine (1999) state employees sued for overtime under the FLSA. The Court ruled that unless a state ___ its immunity, state employees cannot sue in state court for violations of that law, creating a legal wrong with no legal remedy.
In Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States (1964) the Court held unanimously that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title II prohibitions against ___ on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin in public accommodations, specifically lodging, that operated in or affected interstate commerce, do not exceed Congress’s authority under the commerce clause. This case, and Katzenbach v. McClung (1964) handed down the same day affirming the constitutionality of the restaurant accommodation provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, demonstrated Congress’s power to attack moral injustices that affect interstate commerce.
In Biden v. Nebraska, the student loan cancellation case, the Court is currently deliberating a question of standing that invokes questions of federalism and the balance of national versus state power. This case involves the question of whether states may bring a lawsuit challenging the Secretary of Education's invocation of its authority under the HEROES Act to create a loan forgiveness program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and national emergency. If this standing issue is resolved in favor of the states, the Court will be providing a significant tool for states to ___ national power when an exercise of national power tangentially affects a state. A decision for the states on the standing issue would indicate that the Court's dual/cooperative federalism pendulum has fully swung into an era of dual federalism. (Explaining the issue of standing/federalism raised in this case would be a good essay question.)
In 1933 the new Congress, urged by the new President Roosevelt, began passing New Deal statutes in an effort to turn around the economy in the Great Depression. But the U.S. Supreme Court still had a majority of economically conservative justices, opposed to government ___ of business, and invalidated most of the early New Deal legislation.
In Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), the Court held that the New York state legislature’s grant of a monopoly to an entity to operate steamboats in the New York waterways was a violation of Congress’s power to regulate commerce. This case was a substantial victory for national power in that it ___ construed the terms “regulate,” “Commerce,” and “Commerce . . . among the several States.”
In Southern Pacific Company v. Arizona (1945)
the Court held that the Arizona state law governing length of trains operating in or passing through the state is unconstitutional pursuant to the commerce clause’s grant of the power to regulate interstate commerce to Congress. The Court reasoned that "___ control such as is essential to the maintenance of an efficient transportation system....Congress alone can prescribe.”
In Bailey v. Drexel Furniture Co. (1922) the Court held that the Child Labor Tax Law is not a constitutionally permissible excise tax but rather is an unconstitutional ___ enacted to regulate the employment of children, an exclusively state function. (Comparing this case and the reasons for the Court's decision with Hammer v. Dagenhart, the reasons for that decision, and then the decision in U.S. v. Darby (1941) and the impact that case had on Dagenhart and Drexel would be a good essay question.)
Advantages afforded __ a federalist form of government include enhanced checks on power, multiple points of access to government, encouragement of experimentation, and enhanced flexibility.
In Arizona v. United States (2012) the Court held that federal immigration law ___ provisions of Arizona's Senate Bill 1070 that would have 1) made it a state crime for failure to carry federally required alien registration documents; 2) made it a state crime for unauthorized aliens to apply for work or to work as employees or independent contractors; 3)
authorized police to make a warrantless arrest of any person if the officer had probable cause to believe that the person had committed a deportable offense.
In South Dakota v. Dole (1987) the Court held that Section 158, withholding approximately 5% of federal highway funds from any state that did not establish a minimum legal drinking age of 21, is a constitutional use of Congress's ___ power. (Comparing this case with portion of the ruling in NFIB v. Sebelius and the reason for the different outcomes would be a good essay question.)