Introduction The United States is a government of enumerated powers. Congress, and the other two branches of the federal government, can only exercise those powers given in the Constitution. The powers of Congress are enumerated in several places in the Constitution. The most important listing of congressional powers appears in Article I, Section 8 (see left) which identifies in seventeen paragraphs many important powers of Congress. In this section, we consider how several of the enumerated powers of Congress under the original Constitution have been interpreted. Show TAXING POWER
The Court reversed its ban on taxes serving primarily regulatory (rather than revenue-producing) goals in Steward Machine (1937), which upheld a tax on employers designed to encourage states to enact unemployment compensation schemes. In Kahriger (1953), the Court upheld a law requiring bookies to register and pay on tax on all wagers--even though the tax had the regulatory goal of wiping out bookmaking operations and could not be expected to produce significant revenue. In perhaps the most significant taxing power case ever decided, the Court ruled in National Federation of Independent Business v Sebelius (2012) that the so-called "individual mandate" (generally considered a requirement that individuals purchase health insurance) contained in the Affordable Care Act could be sustained as a tax, even though the requirement was outside of Congress's power to regulate commerce. Writing for five members of the Court, Chief Justice Roberts held that even though proponents of the Act consistently said a penalty, not a tax, would apply to individuals who failed to purchase insurance, it still operated as a tax and that a functional analysis should control. The Court noted that failure to purchase insurance required a payment to the IRS, that no criminal penalties attached to failure to purchase insurance, and that the cost of the tax would, in most cases, be less than the cost of buying insurance. In sum, the law did not make it unlawful to purchase insurance, allowing individuals a choice of paying a tax instead. Roberts also reaffirmed that the Congress may seek to achieve regulatory goals through its taxing power that it might not be able to achieve under its other Article I powers. Justices Kennedy, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas dissented, arguing that the taxing power could not sustain the mandate. SPENDING POWER In the 1987 case of South Dakota vs Dole, the Supreme Court considered a federal law that required the Secretary of Transportation to withhold 5% of a state's federal highway dollars if the state allowed persons less than 21 years of age to purchase alcoholic beverages. South Dakota, which allowed 18-year-olds to drink and stood to lose federal funds for highway construction, sued Secretary Dole, arguing that the law was not a constitutional exercise of the power of Congress to spend--but rather was an attempt to enact a national drinking age. In upholding the federal law, the Court announced a four-part test for evaluating the constitutionality of conditions attached to federal spending programs: (1) the spending power must be exercised in pursuit of the general welfare, (2) grant conditions must be clearly stated, (3) the conditions must be related to a federal interest in the national program or project, and (4) the spending power cannot be used to induce states to do things that would themselves be unconstitutional. The Court considered--perhaps unrealistically--the grant condition to be a financial "inducement" for South Dakota to enact a higher drinking age rather than financial "compulsion" to do so--suggesting the possibility of a different result if a higher percentage of funds had been withheld. In dissent, Justice O'Connor argued that spending conditions should be found constitutional only if they related to how the federal grant dollars were to be spent. In 2012, the Court considered whether provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which withheld federal funds from states that failed to expand Medicaid coverage in specified ways, was within the power of Congress under the Spending Clause. In National Federation of Independent Business v Sebelius, the Court held that it was unconstitutional to threaten states with the withholding of all federal Medicaid funding, including their existing funding, for failing to expand coverage in the ways Congress sought to encourage. Chief Justice Roberts, in a part of his opinion joined by Justices Breyer and Kagan, concluded that federal funds withheld, representing perhaps 10% of a state's entire budget, was so substantial that states would have no real choice but to give into Congress's demands. As a result, seven justices agreed that the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion provisions violated the principle that the spending power can not be used to coerce states into enacting legislation or participating in a federal program. The Court distinguished South Dakota v Dole, noting that the funds potentially lost by South Dakota in that case representing only one-half a percent of the state's budget. THE PROPERTY CLAUSE POWER THE COPYRIGHT & PATENT POWER The power to protect original works of authorship: Eric Eldred, plaintiff in suit challenging the constitutionality of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (photo: ABA Journal) Key Constitutional Grants Article I, Section. 8. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and post Roads; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations; To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water; To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy; To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof. Article IV, Section 3 New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State. Amendment XVI Questions TAXING & SPENDING POWERS-- QUESTIONS 1. Does Congress have the power to tax for a purely regulatory, non-revenue raising, goal? Could Congress require all prostitutes to register and pay a tax if it could not make prostitution a federal crime directly?2. Do the Court's recent Commerce Clause decisions give reason to think the Court will also tighten up the Congress's use of its taxing and spending powers? 3. In South Dakota vs Dole, is it clear that South Dakota's lower drinking age jeopardized federal interests in the national highway program? If so, how substantially? 4. Could Congress condition the receiving of federal dollars to fight crime on a state's having enacted the death penalty? How--if at all--would such a condition differ from the condition upheld in South Dakota vs Dole? 5. What result in South Dakota vs Dole if South Dakota stood to lose all federal highway money if it didn't raise its drinking age? What if it stood to lose 30%? THE PROPERTY CLAUSE-- QUESTIONS 1. Does the Property Clause give the Congress the power to protect wildlife on private land that spends most of its time on federal land (on national park, national wildlife refuge, national forest, or BLM land)? Does the Property Clause empower the Congress to protect a grizzly bear or wolf wanders from federal land onto the private land of a rancher?--or is the rancher free to fire away, state law permitting?2. Does the Property Clause empower Congress to regulate private activities on private land that adversely effect public lands, such as air pollution from a nearby plant, bright lights from neon advertising, or noise from a racetrack? 3. Does Article IV, Section 3 give Congress the power to regulate any behavior of residents of U. S. Territories that it chooses to, provided no other provision of the Constitution is offended? For example, could the Violence Against Women Act provision invalidated in Morrison be enforceable in U. S. Territories (such as Guam or Puerto Rico), even though it can't be in the fifty states? What are the most important enumerated powers of Congress?These included: to lay and collect taxes; pay debts and borrow money; regulate commerce; coin money; establish post offices; protect patents and copyrights; establish lower courts; declare war; and raise and support an Army and Navy.
What are 4 enumerated powers of Congress?In this section, we consider how several of the enumerated powers of Congress under the original Constitution have been interpreted. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States...
What is the source of enumerated powers?Enumerated powers are the powers granted to the Federal government, and specifically Congress, which are mostly listed in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution.
What are the 9 enumerated powers of Congress?These are commonly known as the enumerated powers, and they cover such areas as the rights to collect taxes, regulate foreign and domestic commerce, coin money, declare war, support an army and navy, and establish lower federal courts.
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