Court Opinion

ID: 9452617
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:46:29.733755+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:35.735922
License: Public Domain

BARNES, Circuit Judge
(concurring) :
I concur in the result reached by the majority.
Appellees’ employees have been engaged in the hauling of sand, gravel and cement which ultimately go into the construction of roads and airport runways which are instrumentalities of interstate commerce. Alstate Const. Co. v. Durkin, 345 U.S. 13, 73 S.Ct. 565 (1953), makes it clear that essential elements which become a part of such instrumentalities are goods for commerce within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Since appellees’ employees are engaged in the “transportation” of such goods, under section 203(j) they are deemed to be engaged in the “production” of such goods. The conclusion must be that appellees’ employees are engaged in the production of goods for commerce, and are therefore subject to the provisions of the Act.
*67I concur in the result because I feel that such a decision is required by Al-state. I cannot accede, however, to the majority’s suggestion (last two sentences of second paragraph of the majority opinion) that we are only applying the statutory language to the facts of this case.
The exercise of reason does not recon* cile the result we reach here with the power of Congress to regulate commerce “among the several States,” U. S. Const. Art. I, § 8. There is a connection between appellees’ activities and interstate commerce just as every human activity affects commerce in some slight way. But does that mean that Congress has the power to regulate every phase of human activity? I think not. Here there can be little doubt that appellees were not engaged in commerce “among the several States.” New would assert that Congress can by fiat “deem” a person to be within its commerce power unless that person is in fact engaged in interstate commerce, since Congress cannot grant itself powers and be consistent with the Tenth Amendment.
I do not suggest that this statute is unconstitutional as beyond the powers of Congress. Congress has limited the reach of this act to persons engaged in commerce or the production of goods for commerce, defining “commerce” in section 203(b) as “trade, commerce, transportation, transmission, or communication among the several States or between any State and any place outside thereof.” By its very terms the statute is within the commerce power. But I think we distort this language in reaching our conclusion.
Here it is reasonable to expect that the materials transported by appellees’ employees will never leave the state of California. Congress by section 203(j) deems appellees’ employees to be producers of these “goods”, but the operative parts of the statute apply only if the goods are produced “for commerce” within the meaning of section 203(b). The sand, gravel and cement will never be traded, transported, transmitted or communicated among the several States or between, any State and any place outside thereof. They will be mixed and spread upon the ground, and their function will be to remain where they are placed for decades, perhaps centuries. Commerce within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act may move over the road which they will become, but I can see no logical justification for saying that these goods are themselves “for commerce” among the several States within the meaning of either section 203(b) or Art. I, § 8.
Nevertheless, I concur in the court’s result. In Alstate the Supreme Court decided that road building materials are goods produced for commerce within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act. We are bound to accept and must follow that decision. The sole purpose in offering this separate discussion is to point out that the result is reached by following binding authority, rather than by interpreting a statute.