Statutory Sources

Statutory Law

An important source of law in the U.S. is statutes enacted by federal, state
and local legislatures. In general, the federal government can legislate over any area that
it has been granted the power to regulate by the U.S. Constitution. Because ours is a government of limited powers, Congress can only legislate in an area over which it has specific
jurisdiction. Article I Section 8 enumerates the powers of Congress, which include the
power to levy taxes, borrow money, regulate international and interstate commerce, regulate
naturalization and bankruptcy, mint money, punish counterfeiting, establish a post
office and post roads, award patents and copyrights, set up inferior federal courts, punish
crimes on the high seas, declare war, raise armed forces, and so
forth.

Under the Tenth Amendment, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people.” Nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government given the power to, for example, pass social legislation for the common good. Where, then, does Congress get
the power to legislate in these areas? From Article I, Section 8 Clause 2 (the commerce clause), which gives Congress the power to regulate “commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes.”

In a long series of decisions concerning the commerce clause, the Supreme
Court has interpreted the clause in the broadest possible sense, in effect giving
Congress the power to regulate any activity which either directly or indirectly may affect
or burden interstate commerce. Consequently the 1964 and 1991 Civil Rights Acts enacted
by Congress, for example, owe their existence to the commerce clause; the reason Congress
has the power to pass these acts is that discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion or
national origin can burden interstate commerce. In passing the legislation, Congress was
merely exercising its right to regulate commerce. Without such a broad interpretation of
the Constitution, Congress would lack the power to pass any social legislation that did not
come under any of the areas specifically reserved to it in the constitution.

Author: Prof. Victor López