More Commerce Clause

Dennis Karjala asks (hope this doesn't omit too much context):
>
> Are you saying that no matter how great the effect on commerce the
> so-called "patent and copyright clause" prohibits congressional
> intervention?

I think Railway Execs. would be limited to direct conflicts - not that that offers a very clear answer. The Court stated (indeed went out of its way to do so) that Congress could not use the Commerce Clause to nullify an affirmative limitation in another Article I clause. An attempt to use the Commerce Clause to grant perpetual copyrights or directly to override Feist might therefore be viewed as such an impermissible end-run around the limits of that other clause. (or not, if the Court deemed Feist not to be an affirmative limitation like "uniform Laws"). How far the Court would extend the approach, however, as with the Court's more recent trimmings of the Commerce Clause, is not clear to me.

(But the article cited previously provides a likely analysis, and a basis for distinguishing trademarks).

Steve McJohn Suffolk Law
<smcjohn[_at_]acad.suffolk.edu> Received on Fri Apr 26 1996 - 14:36:24 GMT