Federal judge finds female genital mutilation law unconstitutional

[jberryhill]

88. In answer to your question, Congress can do the following:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards and other needful Buildings;-And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

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Those are the powers of Congress. We wrote them down, so we'd know what they are. But, for most instances, if it's not on that list (or can be shoehorned as necessary and proper for doing something on that list), then Congress doesn't have the power to do it.

There are some additional powers granted to Congress in several of the Amendments. So in answer to your question:

"So am I to understand from the ruling the judge made that Congress cannot pass a law that isn’t related to regulating commerce?"

No, Congress can pass laws on a lot of subjects, and can pass laws appropriate to doing any of the various things Congress is empowered to do.

THIS law, however, was passed on two premises: (1) that it was required from a treaty obligation, and (2) that it was permitted under the Commerce clause. The decision addresses both of those points. The outcome is debatable, but virtually nobody here understands what the debate is even about.

The federal government is extremely powerful when it comes to those areas in which the federal government actually has power to do something or which have some relationship to interstate commerce.

Federal criminal law really got going when things like trains and, particularly, automobiles became readily available. That is why, for example, the FBI was created to administer a whole host of new laws that came into being when it became clear that people could do things like rob banks, get away in cars, and then go to other states relatively quickly, and thus evade arrest by police enforcing the laws of any single state.

For run-of-the-mill things generally categorized as "offenses against the person" - murder, assault/battery, sexual assault, robbery (not of a federally insured bank), etc. - there just aren't general federal laws, since those are things which fall under state powers to police various sorts of behaviors.

It wasn't really until the 14th Amendment that states even had to protect the federally-protected rights of individual citizens.