Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-376_7l48.pdf
Page Number: 67

Cite as:  599 U. S. ____ (2023) 

25 

GORSUCH, J., concurring 

United States,” allowing it considerable power over Indians 
on federal territory.  Art. IV, §3, cl. 2.  The Constitution also 
authorized Congress to employ its spending power to divert 
funds toward Tribes.  Art. I, §8, cl. 1.  Where all those pow-
ers  came  up  short,  the  Constitution  afforded  the  federal
government the power to “regulate Commerce with foreign 
Nations and among the several States, and with the Indian 
Tribes.”  §8, cl. 3 (emphasis added).  Much of modern federal 
Indian  law  rests  on  that  commerce  power.  It  demands  a 
closer look. 

2 
Contained in a single sentence, what we sometimes call 
“the”  Commerce  Clause  is  really  three  distinct  Clauses 
rolled into one:  a Foreign Commerce Clause, an Interstate
Commerce Clause, and an Indian Commerce Clause.  To be 
sure, those Clauses share the same lead word:  “Commerce.” 
And, viewed in isolation, that word might appear to sweep 
narrowly—encompassing  activities  like  “selling,  buying,
and bartering, as well as transporting for these purposes.” 
United  States  v.  Lopez,  514  U. S.  549,  585–586  (1995) 
(THOMAS,  J.,  concurring)  (citing  founding-era  definitions). 
But  it  is  “well established”  that  the  individual  Commerce 
Clauses  have  “very  different  applications,”  Cotton  Petro-
leum Corp. v. New Mexico, 490 U. S. 163, 192 (1989), a point 
the framers themselves acknowledged, see, e.g., Letter from 
E. Randolph to G. Washington (Feb. 12, 1791), in 7 Papers
of George Washington: Presidential Series 330, 331–337 (D. 
Twohig 1998). 

Start with the word “Commerce.”  From the Nation’s ear-
liest days, Indian commerce was considered “a special sub-
ject with a definite content,” quite “distinct and specialized”
from  other  sorts  of  “commerce.”  A.  Abel,  The  Commerce 
Clause in the Constitutional Convention and in Contempo-
rary  Comment,  25  Minn.  L. Rev.  432,  467–468  (1941).  A