The United States is a government of enumerated powers. Congress, and the other two branches of the federal government, can only exercise those powers given in the Constitution. The powers of Congress are enumerated in several places in the Constitution. The most important listing of congressional powers appears in Article I, Section 8 (see left) which identifies in seventeen paragraphs many important powers of Congress. The last paragraph of Article I, Section 8 grants to Congress the power "to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into

According to Rehnquist, in the Justice Department's arguments before the Supreme Court the government admitted that using its interpretation of the commerce clause would mean that "...Congress could regulate not only all violent crime, but all activities that might lead to violent crime, regardless of how tenuously they relate to interstate commerce."

execution the foregoing powers"--the "Necessary and Proper Clause." The proper interpretation of the Necessary and Proper Clause was the subject of a heated debate between such important figures as Alexander Hamilton (who argued that the clause should be read broadly to authorize the exercise of many implied powers) and Thomas Jefferson (who argued that "necessary" really meant necessary). Hamilton's more flexible interpretation makes possible a strong central government, whereas Jefferson's narrower interpretation strengthens states' rights. Amendment ten to the United States constitution is known as the residual clause, it states that the powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

There are two main schools of constitutional interpretation and both have their positive and negative aspects. You have originalist, and the non-originalist. When you think of originalist think textual and literal interpretation of the constitution. The main arguments on behalf of originalism are as follows. Originalism in the long run better preserves the authority of the court; non-originalism allows too much room for judges to impose their own subjective and elitist values, judges need neutral, objective criteria to make legitimate decisions, the understanding of the framers and ratifiers of a constitutional clause provide those neutral criteria, and ori

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