hey everybody welcome back we're gonna talk about the big three constitutional Clauses and how changing interpretations of them has increased Federal power make sure to smash that like button and get your notes ready to go [Music] the federal government has enumerated powers those that are directly stated in the Constitution so there's no debate here they can definitely declare war collect taxes and raise an army these powers are sometimes called expressed or explicit the controversy breaks out over implied powers which are not directly stated in the Constitution but claimed by Congress anyway the basis for implied powers is the necessary and proper clause also known as the elastic clause this is a massively important Clause basically Article 1 Section 8 goes through and lists all the enumerated powers of congress Congress shall have the power to do this and to do this and to do this and then the last line of Article 1 Section 8 says that Congress shall also have the power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers that word foregoing means proceeding so as long as the law Congress is trying to make is related to one of the powers expressly given to them then Congress can also do this other thing even though the Constitution does not specifically say that they can this tremendously expands congress's power because now they can make laws on things not expressly given to them by the Constitution next up the supremacy clause and article 6 establishes that when the states and the federal government come into a conflict the federal government is superior to the states making the Constitution the supreme law of the land this is a massive reversal from the Articles Confederation where States retain sovereignty your first required Supreme Court case McCulloch versus Maryland deals with both of these Clauses be sure to watch my McCulloch video for all the details but the court used the necessary and proper clause to determine that Congress has implied powers and therefore was allowed to create a national bank because the function of the bank was related to some of their enumerated powers like borrowing and coining money the court also held that states cannot tax the national government because the powered attacks is the power to destroy and this would make the state superior to the federal government and that conflicts the supremacy clause which says that when States and federal government conflict the federal is superior the third constitutional Clause is the Commerce Clause which at first glance isn't as obviously important as the previous two but I assure you that it is both for this class and for governmental power in real life the Commerce Clause says directly that Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce among the several States see I told you it doesn't sound like a big deal so Congress is allowed to regulate or make laws about anything being bought and sold between people in different states on the other hand in trusted Commerce occurs within a single state and that's left to the states to regulate so whether something is inter or intrastate determines what what level of government can regulate it and the Supreme Court has changed its interpretation of the Commerce Clause over time greatly expanding Federal power and Gibbons versus Ogden the Supreme Court held that only Congress can regulate interstate commerce and that makes sense you don't really want to see conflicting laws on the same thing some by the federal some by the states but then starting in 1937 the court reinterprets the Commerce Clause very broadly saying that only Congress can regulate anything affecting Interstate Commerce in a famous or perhaps Infamous case depending on your perspective wickard vs filburn the court went so far as to rule that Congress could regulate a farmer-grown wheat on his own Farm feeding it to his own animals even though he wasn't buying or selling anything nor was anything crossing state lines the reasoning well if every farmer did what filburn did it would affect the interstate market for wheat and since almost anything thing that anybody does could affect interstate commerce if everybody did it too that means that Congress can use the Commerce Clause to regulate just about anything in our required case US versus Lopez the court finally discovers something that doesn't affect interstate commerce again check out the Lopez video for the details but in this 1995 case the Supreme Court struck down the Federal Gun free school zones act because they held that a student bringing a gun to school does not substantially affect interstate commerce and therefore that's not something that Congress can regulate please don't take this too far this ruling did not change that broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause it's still true that Congress can regulate anything affecting interstate commerce this case is important because it established that there is a limit to what effects a nurse a Commerce it also used the 10th Amendment to remind everybody that some powers are reserved to the states in a lot of ways the 10th Amendment pulls in the opposite direction of these Clauses that we've been discussing it reserves powers to the states rather than listing the specific things that states are in charge of it says that everything not delegated to the federal or denied to the states is reserved to the states maybe you see the conflict here supporters of the stronger federal government point to the necessary and proper clause giving Congress implied powers allowing them to do things that aren't mentioned in the Constitution and they support the broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause meanwhile Estates rights supporters keep coming back to the 10th Amendment saying everything not delegated to the federal or denied to the states is left to the states actually the 14th Amendment also pulls against the Tenth Amendment the 14th Amendment is very different than the first 10 amendments because it limits state power and specifically strengthens the federal government to protect civil rights we'll talk more about these later but both the due process and the equal protection Clauses empower the federal government to protect the rights of people and groups from the states look at the last few words Congress shall have the power to enforce this amendment the AP exam loves to focus on areas of tension and this debate over Federal versus state power is full of tension so you can bet that it'll be all over the AP exam all right well that's it for this one until next time this has been a money production thanks again for watching make sure you check out that ultimate review packet preview unit one for free get the study guide and all the practice that you need to Ace that test and pass the AP exam and I will see you in the next video