Introduction The Commerce Clause is a provision in the U.S Constitution (Article 1, Section 8) that gives Congress the mandate to regulate business with other Nations, States, and Indian Tribes. The commerce clause is the legal foundation of much of Congress's regulatory power (Rosenbaum, Rutkow, & Vernick, 2011). The sovereignty and the exclusivity of the federal government power when dealing with foreign countries and commerce regulation is largely understood. In the past, states and local authorities have been barred by the court from dealing in foreign policy matters because only they have the mandate to deal with those kinds of matters. Although states are grated with some limited powers to tax foreign commerce, the federal government remains the sole agent of Americans in dealings with foreign states.

Power to regulate

Commerce is not defined in the commerce clause or even in the Constitution; hence the courts have various interpretations of the words. The "selective exclusiveness" rule...

v. Arizona (1945). The court stated that Congress has no conflicting regulation, then the state has a residual power to make laws governing locally. In this case, the court came up with a three-part test to determine the implied condition to regulate interstate commerce: (1) that the law allows the state to interfere with the interstate commerce, (2) the commerce under consideration does not in any wat require national or uniform regulation, and (3) that the federal government has no overriding interest in the regulation (Ablavsky, 2014).
Intrastate, or domestic, commerce is a trade that only takes place within one state. Since business...…up to 1900, more than 1400 cases were heard by the Supreme Court. Most of these cases stemmed from issues with local state laws directing local commerce and trade activities. Most of the Supreme Court rulings before the 1900s restricted the state powers to regulate inter-state business and uphold inter-state commerce activities (Legal Information Institute, 2020). As a result, the term "commerce" governed the rulings, while the term "regulate" was largely overlooked. However, the paradigm shifted in the 1930s, and most rulings post-1930's limited the Power of Congress when it came to business and commerce activity occurring in a single state. By and large, the Constitution's "Commerce Clause" has developed the United States into a single economic and financial unit that promotes the inter-state transfer of merchandise, commerce and business, and individuals.

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