About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

74 Tex. L. Rev. 695 (1995-1996)
Judicial Manipulation of the Commerce Clause

handle is hein.journals/tlr74 and id is 715 raw text is: Texas Law Review Volume 74, Issue 4, March 1996 Articles Judicial Manipulation of the Commerce Clause Raoul Berger* The meaning of the power to regulate commerce is to be sought ... in the objects generally understood to be embraced ... when it was inserted in the Constitution. -James Madison May possession of a gun within one thousand feet of a school be outlawed under the federal power to regulate interstate commerce? That issue split the court five to four in United States v. Lopez2 and elicited six opinions, an unsurprising result, considering that the Commerce Clause has been a judicial whirligig that responds to shifting personal preferences as the Court's personnel changes. Such shifts undermine the rule of law and foster suspicion that the Constitution is merely what the fluctuating majority of the Justices says it is. If the limits upon delegated power imposed by a written Constitution are not to be transcended as Marbury * A.B. 1932, University of Cincinnati; J.D. 1935, Northwestern University; L.L.M. 1938, Harvard University. 1. Letter from James Madison to Joseph C. Cabell (Mar. 18, 1827), in 3 LErERS AND OTHER WRITINGS OF JAMES MADISON 571 (New York, R. Worthington 1884). 2. 115 S. Ct. 1624 (1995). 3. Felix Frankfurter wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt: People havebeen taught to believethat when the Supreme Court speaks it is not they who speak but the Constitution, whereas, of course, in so many vital cases, it is they who speak and not the Constitution. And I verily believe that that is what the country needs most to understand. Letter from Felix Frankfurter to Franklin D. Roosevelt (Feb. 18, 1937), in ROOSEvELT AND FRANKFURTE: THEIR CORRESPONDENCE 1928-1945, at 383 (Max Freedman ed., 1967) (emphasis in original).

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most