Commerce Clause at center of battle over health reform

[Geee]

Washington Times:

Congress has used the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight prostitution and domestic violence, to break monopolies and to combat segregation — but its biggest test could come over the Obama administration's claim that it can compel individuals to buy health insurance.

A federal judge earlier this month struck down part of the new health care law on the grounds that Congress had stretched the Commerce Clause too far. Other federal courts, though, have upheld the law, and its fate is certain to be decided eventually by the Supreme Court.

The battle is just the latest in a long line of showdowns over the clause. While some see it as a critical tool to give power to the most important pieces of legislation, others believe Congress has applied it too broadly.

"It's kind of gone from being broadly interpreted to narrowly interpreted, to broadly being interpreted again and then narrowly interpreted," said Robert Langran, a Villanova University political science professor who specializes in constitutional law. "And now, who knows?"

Found in Article I, Section 8, Clause 3, the Commerce Clause gives Congress the power "to regulate commerce … among the several states." In its infancy, Congress used the power to build interstate roads, but has since expanded its claim of authority to target social ills such as human trafficking, segregation and, now, the uninsured.