The Commerce Clause Wakes Up

In U.S. Constitutional law, the “dormant commerce clause” is so called because it forbids individual states from tinkering with even those parts of the national economy that Congress has not regulated—where federal power remains dormant. The name is especially apt because Congress’s commerce power has spent much of the past two centuries snoozing. But the Supreme Court has often stepped in to preserve federal options by striking state efforts to regulate where Congress has yet to act. So even when dormant, the commerce clause has proved formidable.