Commerce

Commerce constitutional

Buying, selling, and trading goods — and, in the Constitution, the movement of that trade across state and national lines.

Technical: In the Commerce Clause (Art. I, §8, cl. 3), the power to regulate trade 'among the several States'; modern doctrine reaches channels and instrumentalities of interstate commerce and activities substantially affecting it.

Founding-era note: Founding-era usage centered on trade and exchange (and its transport), a narrower core than the sweeping modern reach; Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 1 (1824), gave it a broad early reading, and the scope has been contested ever since.

Sources: Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 (1824) · Constitution Annotated — Commerce Clause

A dictionary entry is reference: it describes how a term is used. It is not itself binding law. Why that matters →

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