ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the evidence that shows the original meaning of the commerce clause delegated to Congress a plenary power to regulate all private transactions in the nation. The series of cases that arose over the New York state steamboat monopoly provided major additions to the interpretation of the Commerce Clause. Consequently, most state regulation of commerce has national impact, and if restrictive, will reduce efficiency in the national market. It was only in the area of transportation that the Supreme Court continued a broad construction of the commerce power as applicable to intrastate commerce. There was very little discussion of the domestic commerce power in the Constitutional Convention. Leading historians could label the economic issues of the constitutional convention a "debate among mercantilists". The laissez-faire bias of conservative members of the Court and the bias against the working class of some of them led to majority opinions that violated the ratified language of the Constitution.
