3 ms·

The power of the Federal government was much lower before the Supreme Court allowed the abuse of the commerce clause to get so far out of hand.

jacobolus 15y ago
The power of the Federal Government was a lot lower before the huge “trusts” of the late-19th century grew in size and strength until they could wantonly trample the rights of consumers, their own workers, and citizens generally without any similarly powerful opposing force. It grew still further after the outsized influence of corporate and financial interests led to a calamitous worldwide economic collapse (the great depression) and citizens demanded that their government do something to prevent those imbalances and instabilities. The US Supreme Court changed its understanding of the commerce clause and other aspects of government regulation of commerce in the 40s–60s in rejection of the previous generation’s court whose every decision favored the rich and powerful and blocked corrective legislative action at every level (for instance in the famous Lochner v. New York case after which we now refer to that whole court “era”). The citizenry explicitly (and overwhelmingly) elected legislators and executives who promised to reign in the power of corporations, and they replaced the previous justices... that’s how democracy is designed to work. Government regulation is a response to real serious abuses of the type almost everyone is horrified by when they hear the specific examples that prompted the regulation – false advertising, fraud, miserable working conditions and the general treatment of workers as replaceable objects (and preserving the same by viciously breaking up any attempts by workers to organize), the sale of deadly diseased food, dumping of toxins into drinking water supplies, the use of market power to block competitors from markets or disrupt their operation, discrimination based on race, gender, and religion, etc. etc. To just sum up this history as “the Supreme Court allowed the abuse of the commerce clause to get so far out of hand” is deeply disingenuous.

jacobolus 15y ago

The power of the Federal Government was a lot lower before the huge “trusts” of the late-19th century grew in size and strength until they could wantonly trample the rights of consumers, their own workers, and citizens generally without any similarly powerful opposing force. It grew still further after the outsized influence of corporate and financial interests led to a calamitous worldwide economic collapse (the great depression) and citizens demanded that their government do something to prevent those imbalances and instabilities. The US Supreme Court changed its understanding of the commerce clause and other aspects of government regulation of commerce in the 40s–60s in rejection of the previous generation’s court whose every decision favored the rich and powerful and blocked corrective legislative action at every level (for instance in the famous Lochner v. New York case after which we now refer to that whole court “era”). The citizenry explicitly (and overwhelmingly) elected legislators and executives who promised to reign in the power of corporations, and they replaced the previous justices... that’s how democracy is designed to work. Government regulation is a response to real serious abuses of the type almost everyone is horrified by when they hear the specific examples that prompted the regulation – false advertising, fraud, miserable working conditions and the general treatment of workers as replaceable objects (and preserving the same by viciously breaking up any attempts by workers to organize), the sale of deadly diseased food, dumping of toxins into drinking water supplies, the use of market power to block competitors from markets or disrupt their operation, discrimination based on race, gender, and religion, etc. etc. To just sum up this history as “the Supreme Court allowed the abuse of the commerce clause to get so far out of hand” is deeply disingenuous.