Free Republic

Today, the Virginia House of Delegates overwhelmingly passed House Bill 1438 (HB1438), the Intrastate Commerce Act. The bill, “Provides that all goods produced or manufactured within the Commonwealth, when such goods are held, retained, or maintained in the Commonwealth, shall not be subject to federal law, federal regulation, or the constitutional power of the United States Congress to regulate interstate commerce.” The vote was 65-33. For decades, using a tortured definition of “interstate commerce,” Congress has claimed the authority to regulate, control, ban, or mandate virtually everything – from wheat grown on one’s own land for personal consumption, to weed...

Attorney General Kamala Harris enlisted California in the legal battle over health care Friday, joining eight other states in a court filing defending the new law's requirement that everyone obtain medical insurance. The nine states, all with Democratic attorneys general, filed arguments with a federal appeals court in Cincinnati supporting the constitutionality of the law that's supposed to provide coverage for uninsured Americans. The law includes government subsidies for those who can't afford to buy health coverage and can't get it from their employer. While the Republican-controlled House voted this week to repeal the law, a potentially more serious challenge...

Kinzers, PA-At 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday April 20, Amish farmer Dan Allgyer went outside to begin milking his small herd of dairy cows. On the normally quiet Kinzer Road in front of his farm, just a few miles from the Nickel Mines Amish massacre of 2006, several unfamiliar vehicles drove slowly past. Two months prior, on February 4, FDA agents had trespassed on Allgyer's farm, claiming to be conducting an "investigation." Allgyer had suspected they would be back at some point, because many other small dairy farms around the country have been similarly treated by the FDA. Following is Dan's...

Thirteen state attorneys general are challenging the constitutionality of the health crimes bill signed by the president this morning. The states are correctly asserting that the legislation is unconstitutional and should be struck down, ideally in its totality. Liberal pundits have been delivering their talking points, letting us know that they plan to seek cover under the Interstate Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. Article I, Section 8 specifically empowers the Congress to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes. Despite what liberals want you to believe, the Constitution actually gives...

From Nancy Pelosi's website: MYTH:"Health insurance reform could be unconstitutional…or violate the 10th amendment." FACT: As with Medicare and Medicaid, the federal government has the Constitutional power to reform our health care system. The 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that the powers not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states … or to the people. But the Constitution gives Congress broad power to regulate activities that have an effect on interstate commerce. Congress has used this authority to regulate many aspects of American life, from...

CNSNews.com) – When CNSNews.com asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday where the Constitution authorized Congress to order Americans to buy health insurance--a mandate included in both the House and Senate versions of the health care bill--Pelosi dismissed the question by saying: “Are you serious? Are you serious?” Pelosi's press secretary later responded to written follow-up questions from CNSNews.com by emailing CNSNews.com a press release on the “Constitutionality of Health Insurance Reform,” that argues that Congress derives the authority to mandate that people purchase health insurance from its constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce. The exchange with Speaker Pelosi...

(1) the manufacture, distribution, and importation of firearms is inherently commercial in nature; (2) firearms regularly move in interstate commerce; (3) to the extent that firearms trafficking is intrastate in nature, it arises out of and is substantially connected with a commercial transaction, which, when viewed in the aggregate, substantially affects interstate commerce; (4) because the intrastate and interstate trafficking of firearms are so commingled, full regulation of interstate commerce requires the incidental regulation of intrastate commerce; (5) gun violence in the United States is associated with the majority of homicides, over half the suicides, and two-thirds of non-fatal violent...

Running out of places to raise taxes, NC proposes tax hikes on Internet transactions that would require out of state retailers to collect taxes on NC consumers. Retailers are fighting back citing a Supreme Court ruling which states it violates the interstate commerce clause of the constitution.

FedEx Express is learning what could be the Democrats' economic motto -- "Never Let Success Go Unpunished." Led by Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minnesota), the House on May 21 passed legislation that contains a hidden provision -- a mere 230 words -- that would hobble FedEx Express by completely changing the labor laws under which the company operates. Unless the Senate removes the language from the bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration, a mere dozen or so workers in just one city could hamstring much of the nation's overnight delivery service. Americans take for granted that things can "absolutely, positively ......

It has been a bad week for gun owners in Tennessee, but the taxpayers lucked out when a proposal to tax online purchases when the retailer advertised through an instate company, website or blogger, stalled. Check to see if your state is considering an eTax.

Associated Press HELENA – Montana-made guns may form the basis for a court showdown over states' rights if the governor signs a bill to release some firearms in the state from federal regulation. The proposed law aims to exempt firearms, weapons components and ammunition made in Montana and kept in Montana from federal gun laws. Since the state has few gun laws of its own, the legislation would allow some gunowners and sellers in the state to skirt registration, licensing requirements and background checks entirely...

Spitzer is apparently in violation of the Mann act, which prohibits transportation of women across state lines "for an immoral purpose." Apparently the justification of this law comes from the interstate commerce clause. But when it comes to guns, federal laws are enacted to prohibit or require something for guns "which have ever traveled in or affect" interstate commerce, which is essentially all of them. (Unless you mine the iron, make the steel, and then make the gun all in one state, apparently.) Most girls "have ever traveled in or affect" interstate commerce, but this isn't good enough for the...

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes. The federal government for years has claimed expansive powers under the authority to regulate commerce – so much that the most innocent private activity can now come under federal control simply because it might have an influence on “interstate commerce.” But did the States really empower Congress through the US Constitution with such an expansive, seemingly unlimited power under the Commerce Clause? There are two fundamental principles to understand when considering Congress’ power under the Commerce Clause. The first consideration is the fact...

Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway By Jerome R. Corsi Human Events 6-14-6 Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn. Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoreman's Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive...

on March 1, lawyers for some of America's biggest corporations — and many of the politicos big corporate money supports — will be glued to arguments in Cuno vs. DaimlerChrysler, a case most people have never heard of. Also watching will be representatives of an unusual left-right, Democrat-Republican coalition that is fighting the enormous tax giveaways given to big businesses to lure them into — or keep them from leaving — specific jurisdictions. "Cuno could be a watershed, tectonic moment in the history of job subsidies and interstate relations," says Greg LeRoy, the founder and executive director of Good Jobs...

There's a new poll up on the side. Do you think the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution authorizes federal laws against narcotics and firearms? Now lest everyone forget, this isn't asking whether you personally agree with such laws. It's about whether your honest reading of the Constitution can justify them. While you're thinking it over, it might help to reflect on what James Madison had to say about federal power over interstate commerce:Being in the same terms with the power over foreign commerce, the same extent, if taken literally, would belong to it. Yet it is very certain that...

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court panel yesterday upheld the government's authority to punish Americans for patronizing child prostitutes overseas, but one judge dissented from the ruling, warning that the law in question goes beyond Congress's power under the Constitution to regulate foreign commerce. [snip] The new ruling rejected a challenge to a law passed by Congress in 2003, the Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Act, or PROTECT Act. The law bans "illicit sexual conduct" overseas regardless of the purpose of the trip. Under earlier statutes, a conviction required showing that an American...

SNIP - ALITO DISSENTING OPINION Maj. Op. at ----. In other words, the majority argues in effect that the private, purely intrastate possession of machine guns has a substantial effect on the interstate machine gun market. This theory, if accepted, would go far toward converting Congress's authority to regulate interstate commerce into "a plenary police power." Lopez, --- U.S. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 1633. If there is any sort of interstate market for a commodity--and I think that it is safe to assume that there is some sort of interstate market for practically everything--then the purely intrastate possession of...

 THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION CLAIMS THE authority to stop Oregon physicians from using prescription drugs to implement that state's unique program of physician-assisted suicide. But the administration's effort to use an ambiguous federal drug statute to undermine Oregon's assisted suicide law is a betrayal of conservative legal principles. Gonzales v. Oregon, argued before the Supreme Court earlier this month, may give an early signal about the commitment of the emerging Roberts Court to those principles. And the Court's decision could have unexpected implications for a range of other issues, including future policies about abortion.Like the administration, I believe that the people...

Michigan - Some Michigan wineries have their backs against the wall. A new bill that could become law might have an expensive effect on the way business is done, and more importantly, that bill could shut down some wineries. At present, Michigan law states that wineries can directly ship to customers without going through a distributor. That may change soon and for some wineries that is bad news. Michigan’s wine industry has been successful over the last 10 to 20 years, but the new law could have a harmful effect. Tabor Hill Vice President Paul Landeck said, “Last month the...