The Agricultural Adjustment Act restricted the amount of wheat farmers like Rosco Filburn could grow as a means to increase prices, thereby benefiting farmers. Filburn grew more than his quota, using the “extra” to feed his own livestock at a lower cost. He then benefited by selling his “quota” wheat at market for a higher price. In Wickard v Filburn (1942), SCOTUS acknowledged Filburn’s small amount of locally consumed wheat did not by itself substantially effect interstate commerce. Yet when all of the locally consumed wheat Nationwide is considered together, in the aggregate, those intra-state activities substantially effect interstate commerce. Thus, Congress was allowed to stop Filburn from growing the extra wheat to feed his family & livestock. Although this case is mostly still binding precedent, the fact remains the Constitution only allows Congress to regulate commerce. A man growing wheat to feed his family & livestock is not commerce. Any holding to the contrary stretches the term into absurdity.

In recent weeks, we’ve discussed cases where SCOTUS held Congress could only regulate local activity that had a “direct” effect on INTERstate commerce. But US v Darby (1941) changed that, where SCOTUS held Congress can regulate local activity if it merely has a substantial effect on interstate commerce – even if the local activity itself is NOT commerce. While this is an alarming expansion of Congress’ “power to regulate commerce,” that’s not all. The Act in question “also sets up an administrative procedure whereby those standards may from time to time be modified generally as to industries subject to the Act or within an industry in accordance with specified standards, by an administrator acting in collaboration with ‘Industry Committees’ appointed by him.” So, people appointed within the Executive Branch are “allowed” to make substantive changes to the law, and SCOTUS never questioned that blatant violation of the separation of powers.

In NLRB v Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp (1937), the case hinged on the National Labor Relations Act which gave the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) the power to punish “unfair labor practices [merely] affecting commerce.” Although SCOTUS allowed the NLRA to stand, and effectively expanded the reach of Congress, important sentiments were shared. SCOTUS held the scope of the power to regulate INTRAstate activity “must be considered in the light of our dual system of government, and may not be extended so as to . . . effectually obliterate the distinction between what is national and what is local and create a completely centralized government.” Yet 89 years later, our government seems pretty darn centralized, doesn’t it? The federal government meddles in virtually every aspect of our lives.