Regulating Commerce

In the last fifty years, the “Commerce Clause” in Section 8 has been questionably cited for the purpose of expanding congressional powers. The word “commerce” has several definitions: (1) the interchange of goods and services, especially on a large scale; trade or business; (2) social relations, especially the exchange of views, attitudes, etc.; (3) sexual intercourse; (4) intellectual or spiritual interchange; communion.

Clearly definitions 3 and 4 are not what the Founding Fathers had in mind. It seems obvious that definition 1 is what is meant, especially since Congress is to “regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes.”

But the “clause” has grown and become more complex as the United States economy has grown. With the advent of FDR’s “New Deal,” Congress began to address national social problems, often citing this clause as the constitutional basis for their increasing control over the private sector.

The authors of the Constitution must be turning in their graves at what is happening now as the federal government has seized control of private corporations such as AIG and GM! This is definitely NOT what they had in mind when they granted Congress the power to “regulate commerce.”

Those who lust for power and wealth read what they want to read in the Constitution. That is why the standard of absolute truth and the application of it with “common” sense is so necessary for We the People to remain free.

“Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work, free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free to follow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act for myself -- and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.” --Chief Joseph