The Commerce Clause and its Effect on Federalism An honors thesis presented to the Department of Political Science University at Albany, State University of New York in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in Political Science and graduation from The Honors College. Laura Ann Grace Gallagher Research Mentor: Julie Novkov, Ph.D. May 2015
Introduction Federalism, or the relationship between state and federal government, is an issue that has plagued our country since its birth. When creating state governments many states did not give the executive branch much power, in fact our first guiding document left little to the federal government. The Articles of Confederation were formed and the very words painted a picture, “each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated" ( Section 2, Articles of Confederation). The colonists feared a strong and unified central government, the very reason the revolution began. Due to this fear they created their new government with a weak central body. A few years after the passage of the Articles of Confederation it was clear that this document did not allow for a strong country, especially in economic terms. The issue with the Articles of Confederation was that each state had control over its own commerce and this led to various amounts of debt from states and the Confederation Congress. When it came to paying back these debts the lack of a central entity to deal with the country as a whole became a considerable issue. The Constitution was the next step, but getting there would not be easy. While the Constitution was being drafted there was a divide, the sides were known as the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists wanted a strong central government, in order to unite the country and be stronger on an international level. The Anti-Federalists still held onto their fear of monarchy, therefore they wanted to give the majority of the power to the individual states. This conflict became evident in the authorship of the Federalist Papers as well as the Anti-Federalist Papers. These
argument did not work in this case because the states were not the only ones affected by this act. The Court declared that this case did not warrant an eleventh amendment argument. The Court ruled to uphold the act because they did not believe that the eleventh amendment argument was valid due to the fact that this fell within the realm of the Commerce Clause. “Congress had found that substandard wages and excessive hours, when imposed on employees of a company shipping goods into other States, gave the exporting company an advantage over companies in the importing States. Having so found, Congress decided as a matter of policy that such an advantage in interstate competition was an "unfair" one,” Justice Harlan said in response to whether or not the act had a substantial effect on interstate commerce (Maryland v. Wirtz). Now the door has been opened to anything that can be seen to give one company an advantage over another in their industry. It also has a large impact on federalism, because the federal government is now directly controlling the actions of state governments and their entities. National League of Cities v. Usery brought into question the Fair Labor Standards Act. This was a case of the New Deal area that took place in the final years of the depression. During this time the issues of the workplace and wages were of great importance to all Americans. Roosevelt was trying to step in by implementing numerous acts that would place the federal regulations. The Fair Labor Standards Act was upheld in this case, but the Court did rule that the act did not have the authority to span to state governments. In 1984 Garcia v. San Antonio Transit Authority was brought in front of the Supreme Court. The issue at hand was the wages of the bus operators. Again we have a case similar to the Heart of Atlanta Motel, where the business in question is only operating within the boundaries of singular state. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) required a minimum wage as well as overtime requirements for workers, the Wage and Hour Administration within the Department of