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Hello, welcome to week 6 of the
L2 Legal English course.

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Last week we looked at the structure
of Congress, which is of course

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the federal legislative branch.

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Today we'll be examining the
legislative powers of Congress

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under the Constitution and the
process by which legislative proposals,

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known as bills, are passed into law.

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So we start firstly with the powers
of Congress.

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To understand the legislative powers
of Congress, it's important to

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recognise that the source of these
powers is the Constitution.

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This is not true for the individual
states whose sovereign power to

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make laws existed before the
Constitution and was preserved

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after the Constitution was ratified.

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When the Constitution replaced
the Articles of Confederation in 1787,

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the founders wanted to give the
new national government certain

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powers that it lacked under the
old Articles and to make sure that

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it would be able to act on behalf
of citizens without first having

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to get approval from state governments.

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But the founders also wanted to
preserve the state's power over

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their own citizens, so it was important
to strike a balance.

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The founders achieved this by granting
the new national government only

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limited, enumerated powers.

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All other powers continued to be
exercised by the states,

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including the regulation of commerce
within their own borders.

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Any limits on state legislative
powers were almost exclusively

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a result of their own state
constitutions.

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So the enumerated powers of Congress
are listed in Article 1,

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Section 8.

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These powers include such things
as power to tax, to regulate the

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economy, to enact laws on immigration
and naturalisation, to coin money

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and to establish post offices.

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As well as explicit enumerated powers,
Congress also has implied powers.

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This comes from the final phrase
in Section 8, which grants Congress

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power to make all laws which are
necessary and proper in order to

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execute its enumerated powers.

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This is referred to as the Necessary
and Proper Clause, or sometimes

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the Elastic Clause, as it serves
to effectively stretch or extend

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federal power.

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Perhaps the most significant enumerated
power is the power to regulate

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interstate commerce,
the so-called Commerce Clause.

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So while commerce was originally
understood as the buying and selling

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of goods and commodities,
this has been broadened over the

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years to encompass other activities.

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In the leading case of Gibbons
and Ogden, decided in 1824,

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Chief Justice John Marshall held
that it also included navigation.

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So the idea of what might be called
interstate commerce has also widened

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to the point where today it covers
the movement of almost any goods

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or lines.

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The high watermark of federal power
to pass legislation based on the

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Commerce Clause was the 1930s era
of the New Deal, which saw massive

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government infrastructure programs
in response to the economic ravages

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of the Great Depression.

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The Court increasingly interpreted
Article 1 to give Congress the

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power to regulate wholly interstate
economic activity, interstate activity

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that it said substantially affected
interstate commerce.

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So this led to a situation where
federal laws could apply to almost

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anything relating to trade or finance
or even movement of goods or people

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if it crossed the state line.

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This handed the federal government
the power to regulate in many areas

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that were once governed exclusively
by the states.

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In the mid-1980s under Chief Justice
Rehnquist, the Court began moving

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away from this very expansive
interpretation of the Commerce

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Clause and returned towards a view
of federalism that placed much

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more weight on state sovereignty.

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So the Court still allowed federal
regulation of economic activity

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that had a substantial effect on
interstate commerce,

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but it did not extend this to
non-economic intrastate activity.

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For example, in the United States
v Lopez 1995 case, the Supreme

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Court struck down a federal law
on the basis that it went beyond

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the limits of the Commerce Clause.

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This was the first time the Supreme Court
had struck down such a law in a

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long time.

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So the law was the Gun Free School
Zones Act of 1990, which made it

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unlawful to possess a firearm in
a school zone.

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Chief Justice Rehnquist,
writing for the majority,

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held that the law was,
and I quote, "a criminal statute that by its terms has nothing to do with 'commerce' or any sort of economic enterprise, however broadly one might define those terms." This push to preserve

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a zone of autonomy for the states
has continued in the current U.S.

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Supreme Court under Chief Justice
Roberts.

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The Court has used this idea of
state sovereignty to ensure a zone

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of state autonomy and made it clear
that federal powers cannot continue

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to expand under the Commerce Clause
without any limiting principle.

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Turning now to the subject of passing
laws.

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As we touched on last week,
bills, so a proposal for a new law,

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may start in either house,
except for revenue bills or money

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bills, which we saw must originate
in the House of Representatives.

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In this respect, the Framers were following the English tradition that only the House of Commons,

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the lower house, and not the House
of Lords, could put forward a money

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bill.

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It was felt that the so-called
power over the purse should be

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a prerogative of the more
representative legislative body,

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the body closer to the people.

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It was also part of a compromise
between larger and smaller states.

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The larger states were not particularly
happy with the idea of equal

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representation in the Senate,
but the larger states,

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as a result of their population,
would always have a greater influence

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over legislation proposed in the
House of Representatives.

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As far as the legislative procedures
are concerned, the Constitution

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is not very precise on the exact
mechanisms required to pass a law.

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Generally speaking, in the absence
of a specific procedure identified

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in the Constitution,
Congress is able to propose its

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own procedures for carrying out
its functions.

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As I mentioned earlier,
a draft proposal for a new bill

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is called a bill, and generally
a bill is introduced by a member

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of either House and goes to the
House Committee where it is examined.

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So members of the House Committee
will discuss and often make changes

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to the bill, and then the bill
is put before the chamber to be

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voted on.

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If the bill passes in that chamber,
it goes through a similar process

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in the other chamber.

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One feature of this process peculiar
to the Senate is the ability of Senators to filibuster bills.

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So filibustering is basically a
strategy to delay or obstruct the

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passage of a bill by effectively
refusing to stop speaking during

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a debate on the bill.

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The Senate rules allow this.

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They allow members to speak for
as long as they wish on any topic,

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and really the only way to end
a filibuster is if three-fifths

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of the senators, so 60 senators,
vote to close the debate by invoking

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cloture.

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If both chambers of Congress vote
in favour of a bill,

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then it is presented to the President
for final approval.

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The President has 10 days in which
to respond, either by signing the bill,

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in which case it becomes law,
or by vetoing it and sending it

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back to Congress unsigned.

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The two Houses will then re-examine
the bill and consider the presidential

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objections to it.

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If Congress disagrees with the
presidential veto, it can still

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pass the bill with a two-third
majority.

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So this supermajority will override
the veto and turn the bill into law.

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Finally, there's also the so-called
pocket veto option, where the President

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receives the bill but does nothing,
in effect puts it in his back pocket.

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Normally if the President does not act,
the bill will automatically become

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law after 10 days, but if Congress
adjourns before the expiry of 10 days,

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then the bill cannot be returned
to Congress because it's no longer

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in session and in that case the
bill is effectively dead.

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If a bill is vetoed,
the only way to revive the bill

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is to start again, reintroduce
it as a new bill, pass it through

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both chambers, and present it once
again to the President for approval.

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So next week we're going to continue
our study of presidential power

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by looking at the structure of
the executive branch as set out

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in Article 2 of the Constitution.

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Thank you for your time today.