Beginning with the Articles of Confederation and continuing through the modern period, explain how the commerce power of the national government has related to the issue of national authority.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Under the Articles, the national government had no effective control over commerce, which contributed to the economic problems that resulted in the writing of the Constitution. The Constitution gave the national government the power to regulate interstate commerce, thereby facilitating the development of the United States as a national entity. The Industrial Revolution created an unprecedented degree of national interdependence. Until the 1930s, however, the Supreme Court sharply limited national economic regulatory policies by ruling that commerce among the states included transportation but excluded areas related to production (such as the use of child labor). During the New Deal, however, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress's commerce power was as "broad as the needs of the nation," opening the constitutional path to a national economy regulated by policies made in Washington, D.C.