Section. 8.
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;—And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
I’m not your lawyer. This is not legal advice.
Look at that list! I bet I could do my laundry with a list like that. But Congress couldn’t. Laundry, you see, isn’t on the list.
That’s not entirely true. It depends on a couple of things.
First, these aren’t powers per se, but categories of power. Congress has categoric power to tax, borrow, regulate commerce, regulate naturalization and bankruptcy, coin money, standardize weights and measures, define punishment for counterfeitting, establish post offices and their roads, regulate patents and copyright, define the court structure, criminalize piracy and internetional crimes, declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, create and regulate the army and navy, regulate the militia (reserving certain powers to the states), and regulate the area that would eventually be the District of Columbia.
With those powers, Congress also has the “necessary and proper” power to make laws to carry out the dictates of the Constitution and to exercise its constitutional powers.
The thing to remember here, this is not a “for example” kind of list, but rather a full list of all the powers of Congress. When reading the Constitution, it’s important to remember that the federal government has no power that is not granted to it by the people, via the Constitution. Every power listed here is granted to Congress by people who are giving up that power (you can neither regulate patents, nor grant letters of marque and reprisal. Sorry) to allow the government, as steward of it, to use it. That’s the whole basis of the document.
That means, if Congress wants to do something, it needs to be under a power listed here.
Now that we’ve seen the powers granted, next week we’ll look at some express limitations on that power.