On Thursday, July 8, the Alabama Center for Law and Liberty (“ACLL”) filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in the United States Supreme Court in Ortiz-Diaz v. United States, asking the Court to return to the original meaning of the Commerce Clause.

This particular case challenges the federal government’s authority to criminalize cockfighting in Puerto Rico. Congress relied on the Commerce Clause of the Constitution to criminalize this activity. The Commerce Clause gives Congress the authority to “regulate Commerce … among the several States.” The federal government relies on this clause to justify many federal laws and regulations.

ACLL filed its brief on behalf of Professor Jeffrey C. Tuomala, Professor of Constitutional Law at the Liberty University School of Law. In a masterful discussion of Commerce Clause jurisprudence, Professor Tuomala explains how the early Supreme Court correctly held that the Commerce Clause’s purpose, or object, was to secure a free market by stopping them from engaging in trade wars and protectionist policies that had plagued the country under the Articles of Confederation. By the 1940’s, however, the Court had twisted the Commerce Clause’s meaning to the point where it let Congress stop farmers from growing crops on their own land to feed their families and livestock. This jurisprudence turned the Commerce Clause on its head.

Matthew Clark, ACLL’s Executive Director, explained, “Over the last century, the federal government has used the Commerce Clause to justify unconstitutional intrusions into matters that the Tenth Amendment leaves to the states and the people.” Clark continued, “Professor Tuomala explains to the Court how its Commerce Clause decisions have created a runaway federal government. Since we now have the most conservative Supreme Court in nearly a century, we hope the Court will take this opportunity to return to the Commerce Clause’s original meaning and reign the federal government back into its proper place.”  

View ACLL’s brief and the case details here.