Commerce clause

Authority for protection of patents and copyrights is set out in the Constitution and is the exclusive province of the federal government. Eederal legislation to protect trademarks is based on the authority of Congress, under the commerce clause of the Constitution, to regulate interstate and foreign commerce of the United States protection afforded by individual states is based on their power to regulate intrastate commerce. 

The court declared that the commerce clause of the Constitution (allowing Congress to regulate interstate commerce) did apply to Puerto Rico as a U.S. territory. It also disposed of the due process and equal protection arguments, citing the rational and practical need for lawmakers to make assumptions based on a person s prior conviction for a crime. 

The Court noted Even Wickard, which is perhaps the most far reaching example of Commerce Clause authority over intrastate activity, involved economic activity in a way that the possession of a gun in a school zone does not. The Court also concluded that the law was not a necessary part of a legitimate scheme to regulate commerce. Further, Congress had not established a reasonable relationship between this legislation and commerce, and the law had no mechanism for determining whether a particular case of gun possession had the necessary nexus or connection with interstate commerce. For all of these reasons the Supreme Court overturned the... 

This case has a number of important features. From the point of view of challenging gun control, it should be noted that the Second Amendment played no part in the challenge. Unless the Supreme Court revisits its view of the Second Amendment, challenges to federal gun control laws are likely to be based on the Commerce Clause or federalism (the division of powers between the federal government and the states, as in Printz et al. v. U.S.). 

First, the decision rejected the claim made in the appeal that the Maine law regulated interstate commerce. The law says nothing about the price of drugs in other states, a condition needed to violate the commerce clause. Nor does it impose an undue burden on out-of-state competitors. Since... 

The cooperative had also argued that even if the necessity defense is not allowed, the Controlled Substances Act exceeds the power of Congress under the constitution s Commerce Clause, and that enforcing this law against medical marijuana patients would deprive them of the right to due process and infringe on liberties guaranteed by the Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments. However, because these constitutional issues were not raised earlier in the appeals process, the Court declined to consider them. 

December 16 The Ninth Circuit federal court of appeals rules that Congress lacks the power under the Interstate Commerce clause to prevent California patients from growing marijuana for personal medical use. The government is expected to appeal to the U.8. bupreme Court. 

Finally, the Cooperative contends that we should construe the Controlled Substances Act to include a medical necessity defense in order to avoid what it considers to be difficult constitutional questions. In particular, the Cooperative asserts that, shorn of a medical necessity defense, the statute exceeds Congress Commerce Clause powers, violates the substantive due process rights of patients, and offends the fundamental liberties of the people under the Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments. As the Cooperative acknowledges, however, the canon of constitutional avoidance has no application in the absence of statutory ambiguity. Because we have no doubt that the Controlled Substances Act cannot bear a medical necessity defense to distributions of marijuana, we do not find guidance in this avoidance principle. Nor do we consider the underlying constitutional issues today. Because the Court of Appeals did not address these claims, we decline to do so in the first instance. 

Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, known as the Commerce Clause , empowers the United States Congress To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States . 

Commercial use. Commercial use is defined as the use of a chemical substance or any mixture containing the chemical substance in a commercial enterprise providing saleable goods or a service to consumers (e.g., a commercial dry cleaning establishment or painting contractor). This is a very narrow definition of commercial because the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution extends to many other activities that are deemed commercial. 

The term commerce means trade, traffic, transportation, or other commerce (A) between a place in a State and any place outside of such State, or (B) which affects trade, traffic, transportation, or commerce described in clause (A). 

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