Congressional restoratio power

Readers should know that notwithstanding its peremptory tone, Georgia Law Professor Paul Heald's assertion that Congress lacks any power to restore copyrights because of the wording of the Constitutional copyright clause is open to serious doubt. The commerce clause would seem an equally available font of power to define and protect intellectual property. The Constitution doesn't consist of air-tight compartments: famously, the fact that Congress can protect civil rights under the Civil War Amendments didn't keep the Supreme Court from justifying the 1964 Civil Rights Act under the commerce clause. The Fifth Circuit is now considering a case raising the question whether the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is yet another font of such power.

<csims[_at_]proskauer.com> Received on Sat Apr 19 1997 - 17:46:42 GMT