A recent issue of the Michigan Law Review features Jack Balkin’s article Commerce. (109 Mich. L. Rev. 1 [2010].) The article argues that in the original meaning of the Constitution, “commerce” was understood to include a broad variety of social relationships, including relationships that had nothing to do with economic activity. Accordingly, writes Balkin, the original meaning of the interstate commerce power justifies not only the entire New Deal, but almost every expansion of congressional power since then.
In a reply article for the Michigan Law Review‘s on-line supplement, First Impressions, Rob Natelson and I challenge Balkin’s analysis. We argue that “commerce”–as it was actually used in the Constitution–includes mercantile exchange, and a few closely-related activities, such as navigation.
For example, for dictionary definitions of “commerce,” Balkin relies entirely on the 1785 edition of Samuel Johnson, whose first word in the definition of “commerce” is “intercourse.” We look at the 1786 edition of Johnson, as well as six other influential dictionaries of the period. All of these dictionaries have less expansive definitions.
In addition:
Balkin entirely fails to address a decisive historical fact: during the ratification debates, the Constitution’s advocates repeatedly and clearly represented to the general public many areas over which the new government would have no power at all, at least within state boundaries. Their lists included education, social services, real estate transactions, inheritance, religion, manufacturing, agriculture and other land use, business licensing, most road building, civil justice within states, local government, and control of personal property outside mercantile commerce. All of these are within Balkin’s broad definition of “commerce,” but control over all, the Federalists informed the public, were outside federal authority.
As for whether the expansions of federal power during the presidencies of FDR, LBJ, GHWB, BHO, et al., are constitutionally justifiable, we leave that issue to whatever theory of living constitutionalism (or, per Woodrow Wilson, discarding the Constitution as outmoded) that one wishes to adopt (or to reject). We disagree with the first sentence of Balkin’s article, that “A good test for the plausibility of any theory of constitutional interpretation is how well it handles the doctrinal transformations of the New Deal period.” For otherwise, he writes, “we could not have a federal government that provides all of the social services and statutory rights guarantees that Americans have come to expect. The government could neither act to protect the environment nor rescue the national economy in times of crisis.”
We disagree. The original meaning is what it is, not what people in the 21st century might wish it to be. “The original meaning of the Constitution does not depend on whether it comports with Jack Balkin’s policy preferences on the welfare state any more than whether it comports with John Yoo’s policy preferences on habeas corpus or John McCain’s policy preferences on campaign speech.” Of course the judicial and political branches, the legal academy, and the American public do not necessarily have to consider themselves restrained by original meaning.
Incidentally, for any law student who aspires to be a better legal writer, I highly recommend reading the Balkin article, or any other Balkin article. Balkin is superb at presenting sophisticated topics in a straightforward style that is engaging to read. Particularly outstanding is Balkin’s Framework Originalism and the Living Constitution. Whether or not you are entirely persuaded that Balkin’s particular synthesis of originalism and living constitutionalism should be the framework for constitutional interpretation, Balkin’s description of when, why, and how courts actually decide to enforce or not enforce various parts of the Constitution is very perceptive.