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Real life example of elastic clause​

User Denis Ibaev
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18 votes

Answer:

When the issue of whether the federally-chartered bank could be taxed by the state, the U.S. Supreme Court voted unanimously that Congress had the power to establish the bank, and that Maryland did not have the power to tax it. ... This is one of many examples of the Elastic Clause working in Congress' favor.

User Nbeuchat
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17 votes
17 votes

Answer:

The U.S. Constitution is at once, elastic.

The ‘elastic clause’ a.k.a. ‘necessary & proper’ power to enforce/exercise the enumerated powers of Article I might be likened to adding jet fuel to the Model T engine of the Constitution when we consider congressional reach into state territory with the application of federal regulations to activities in the ‘flow of commerce’, beginning with maritime jurisdiction of the seas in foreign trade, to the merchant ships at the docks, to the flow of distribution in the trucks on the highway between the states, to the break up of meat packer monopolies at Swift in Chicago, to the enforcement of the New Deal and Civil Rights, the commerce clause was stretched from 1862 until 1992 (US v. Lopez) when a kid took a gun to a high school and the court found no subject in the flow of commerce superseding state powers (10th Amend) to regulate.

Be that as it may, the enumerated powers of the Articles; expressed, implied, inherent, resultant and concurrent are by definition, elastic; a fact that makes the ‘necessary & proper clause’ somewhat redundant. The founders wanted a durable government - they created it with an elastic Constitution.

User Onlywei
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