Where in the US Constitution is the federal government given the power to regulate how many miles per gallon automobiles must get?

Answer 1

Of course, you won't find this in the Constitution. It was written in the late 18th century. The Constitution can't possibly cover every possible need in detail. Congress does its best to determine what laws are reasonable at any given time, and if a problem arises, the Supreme Court either interprets the law, or strikes it as unconstitutional. If it's not in the Constitution, then the federal government does not have the authority to do it. I don't know what they are teaching in Civics classes these days, but that's what the Constitution says. It doesn't matter what Congress thinks is reasonable. If the Constitution doesn't give them the power to legislate it, then they don't have the authority. I suggest you read the Tenth Amendment. A change in emphasis might help. If something has to be specifically written in the Constitution itself in order for the government to have authority over it, then the founders wouldn't have bothered creating a congress and judicial system. We would have had no need for any other law. Clearly, that was not the intention. The Constitution of the most powerful nation on earth can be read from beginning to end, including the 27 amendments, in 20 or 30 minutes. It is a guide for establishing just laws. But the people can amend the Constitution, just as it is the people who give it power in the first place. == == Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the US Constitution is known as the Commerce Clause, and reads "The Congress shall have Power ...To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes."

The use of vehicles in interstate commerce has been determined by the Supreme Court to fall under this part of the Constitution in the case Gibbons v. Ogden (1824). The Chief Justice in the majority opinion ruled that navigation and travel fit under this rule.

There are those that feel that the Commerce Clause is abused to provide Federal powers where they shouldn't be read into the Constitution. While it is certainly a factor, they have not been able to garner enough support to make the changes to the Constitution. Whether it is appropriate or not is a worthy debate. The Supreme Court has abused the so-called "interstate commerce clause" to the point of meaninglessness. It seems that any and everything the federal government wants to have power over, the Supreme Court becomes a willingly partner in this usurpation by declaring, against all reason and common sense, that some action constitutes "interstate commerce". For example, there is a federal law requiring all toilets sold in the US to be limited to one gallon per flush.

The opinion of some is that the INTENTION of the Constitution was to LIMIT the power of the federal government. This was accomplished by clearly enumerating the powers that the federal government DID have, with the assumption that everything else was off limits. Some thought that the notion that everything else was off limits was not clear enough, so they included in the Bill of Rights the Tenth Amendment, which made it clear.

Yes, the federal government still needs the congress and the courts. The congress to make laws, and the courts to determine whether someone is in violation of them. But both of these institutions (and the president as well) must perform their duties WITHIN THE BOUNDS specified by the Constitution. One of those restrictions is plainly written in the Tenth Amendment. Any power not delegated to the federal government by the Constitution is reserved to the States or the People. And the power to regulate how many miles per gallon automobiles must get is NOT delegated to the federal government. Therefore, the federal government has NO power to do so. The power, if it exists at all, is reserved to the States.

Of course, automobiles hadn't been invented yet in 1787 when the Constitution was written. This does not change the fact that the Constitution doesn't say anything about automobiles or gasoline. Like it or not, the federal government doesn't have this power. If the PEOPLE think that the government has a legitimate interest in regulating miles per gallon, then a Constitutional Amendment can be initiated to give the government power over this issue. If 2/3 of both houses of Congress, and 3/4 of the State legislatures agree, then the Amendment will become part of the Constitution. To date, no such amendment has been proposed. To many it seems clear that the purpose of the "interstate commerce clause" was to give the federal government the power to set standards for business transactions in cases where no one State government could be said to have authority. At the time, different States had different laws regarding commerce, and buyers and sellers in different States had a hard time determining which State's laws superceded the other's. Even the States themselves had huge disagreements over such issues. So, the framers of the Constitution gave the federal government the power to enact laws that would govern transactions that took place between people in different States. It was supposed that the laws created by the Federal government would be somewhere in between those of the States involved. The framers had no intention of allowing the federal government to make up commerce laws out of whole cloth! Futhermore, the purpose of the interstate commerce clause was to regulate the terms of the transaction, not the nature of the product itself, nor its price. I challenge anyone to come up with any transaction, or even any action, that the federal government cannot, under such liberal application of the interstate commerce clause, claim power over. The logic that resulted in the Federal Minimum Wage Law being deemed Constitutional is only slightly less ridiculous.