Today’s Washington Post column looks at one of the motivations for the Constitution, and why it’s still relevant.
Under the Articles of Confederation in the 1780s, New York launched a trade war against Connecticut and New Jersey. Protecting commerce from what Alexander Hamilton called “the interfering and unneighborly regulations of some States, contrary to the true spirit of the Union,” was one of the objects of the Constitution. James Madison, though less enthusiastic than Hamilton about a strong central government, wrote similarly.
The Constitution therefore includes several restrictions on what states can do to one another and a commerce clause that hands regulatory power to Congress.
The Supreme Court has been more and more reluctant to enforce limits on the states’ powers over interstate commerce. But now, as I go on to explain, blue states may be forcing the Court’s hand by trying to compel other jurisdictions to follow their climate dictates.