Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/21-454_4g15.pdf
Page Number: 43

Cite as:  598 U. S. ____ (2023) 

9 

THOMAS, J., concurring 

that commerce or navigation.  And if congress has the 
right to regulate every employment or pursuit thus re-
motely  connected  with  that  commerce,  of  which  they 
have the control, then it has the right to regulate nearly 
the entire business and employment of the citizens of 
the several states. . . . Yet, if congress has the power to
regulate all these employments, and a thousand others
equally connected with that commerce, then it can reg-
ulate nearly all the concerns of life, and nearly all the 
employments of the citizens of the several states; and 
the state governments might as well be abolished.  It is 
not sufficient, then, that navigation, or trade, or busi-
ness of any kind, within a state, be remotely connected, 
or, perhaps, connected at all with ‘commerce with for-
eign nations, or among the several states, or with the 
Indian tribes,’ it should be a part of that commerce, to
authorize  congress  to  regulate  it.”  The  James  Morri-
son, 26 F. Cas. 579, 581 (No. 15,465) (DC Mo. 1846). 

The  Court’s  observation  that  “federal  regulation  was 
largely limited to ensuring that ‘traditional navigable wa-
ters’  . . .  remained  free  of  impediments,”  ante,  at  2,  thus 
does no more than reflect the original understanding of the 
federal authority over navigable waters. 

B 
As noted above, the scope of Congress’ authority over wa-
ters was defined by the traditional concept of navigability, 
imported  with  significant  modifications  from  the  English
common law.3  Thus, Congress could regulate only “naviga-

—————— 

3 The English rule tied navigability to the ebb and flow of the tides, but
began to be eroded in America as early as the Northwest Ordinance of 
1787 due to the superior commercial capacity of American inland rivers.  
See The Daniel Ball, 10 Wall. 557, 563 (1871); Propeller Genesee Chief v. 
Fitzhugh, 12 How. 443, 454–457 (1852); see also Economy Light & Power