Enumerated and Implied Powers Cases

Can Congress regulate travel between the states?

• Yes

• No

Under McCulloch v. Maryland, why did the Court find Congress could charter a national bank?

• The Court found that Congress can do whatever is "convenient" to execute its other enumerated powers. In this case, the Court held that the Necessary and Proper Clause allowed Congress to charter the bank because it was convenient "in the prosecution of {Congress's} fiscal operations..."

• The Court found that the Commerce Clause gives Congress specific and enumerated power to charter a bank under the Taxing and Spending Clause.

Which of the answers below is the best summary of the Court's decision in Prigg v. Pennsylvania?

• The Fugitive Slave Clause in the Constitution was intented to prevent free states from interfering with the rights of slave owners. Congress can pass the Fugitive Slave Act to allow slave owners the right to retrieve their escaped slaves. The Act was constitutional according to the Necessary and Proper Clause because it allowed the federal government to enforce the Fugitive Slave Clause. Free states' "personal liberty" laws could not override the Act and prevent slave owners or slave catchers from retrieving slaves that escaped to the free states; however, the federal government could not force or command free states to enforce the Act and seize and return escaped slaves to their "owners." Basically, the federal government had to carry out or enforce the Act, but the states could not interfere with that enforcement.

• The Fugitive Slave Clause in the Constitution was intended to prevent free states from interfering with the right of slave owners. Congress passed the Fugitive Slave act to force states to comply with the Fugitive Slave Clause. Free states could no longer provide a "haven" to escaped slaves and had to comply with the requirements of the Fugitive Slave Clause and Fugitive Slave Act because federal law supersedes states law. Free states were required to return fugitive slaves to their "owners" in the South. Basically, if a free state encountered an escaped slave, it had a duty to return the slave to his or her "owner."

Under the Chase Court Era (1869-1871), could Congress interfere with internal trade under certain conditions?

• Yes

• No

In US v. E.C. Knight (1895), did "commerce" involve the sale or movement of an item AFTER it was manufactured?

• Yes

• No

Under Champion v. Ames (1903), did Congress have the power to prohibit some forms of commerce?

• Yes

• No

Under the substantial effects doctrine, can Congress regulate certain types of intrastate commerce?

• Yes

• No

Which answer below best describes the holding in US v. Darby (1941)?

• Congress can prevent local substandard labor practices because those conditions have a significant impact on interstate commerce even though the power to regulate labor conditions isn't enumerated in the Constitution. It doesn't matter what motivated Congress's desire to regulate local labor practices.

• Congress cannot interfere with labor practices at the local level because those practices deal with how a product is manufactured, not what happens after the product is manufactured and moves through commerce.

Did the Court in Wickard v. Filburn (1942) find Congress's actions to regulate local activities constitutional (upheld the law) or unconstitutional (struck down the law)?

• Found it constitutional

• Found it unconstitutional

Explain why Congress could require local businesses like restaurants and motels to desegregate under Title II fo the Civil Rights Act (1964). Use complete sentences.