Thanks didn’t know it was actually congress. Makes more sense to me now. But does congress even have authority to regulate that? Does it fall under unenumerated rights that fall to the people? I guess I remember hearing they regulate it under interstate commerce?
The case lays out the current understanding of Congress's power over commerce:
"Consistent with this structure, we have identified three broad categories of activity that Congress may regulate under its commerce power... First, Congress may regulate the use of the channels of interstate commerce... Second, Congress is empowered to regulate and protect the instrumentalities of interstate commerce, or persons or things in interstate commerce, even though the threat may come only from intrastate activities... Finally, Congress' commerce authority includes the power to regulate those activities having a substantial relation to interstate commerce, i.e., those activities that substantially affect interstate commerce."
Congress has extremely sweeping authority to dictate interstate and international commerce. Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution:
"The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense 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;
"
Recall the holding in Raich: Congress has the power to regulate local activities that are part of a class of activities that affect interstate commerce.
The power to regulate an area is based on the subject matter, whether it qualifies as “interstate commerce,” not whether some conduct within that domain is permitted or not. It’s not a one-way ratchet where Congress sets a floor and states can ratchet it up if they want. Sometimes that’s what Congress wants to do, but other times it decides that some things should be unregulated beyond a certain threshold. That’s a function of the regulatory framework Congress chooses to enact, not what the Commerce Clause empowers Congress to do.
Interstate commerce being a federal power under the Constitution prohibits states acting to regulate interstate commerce where the federal government has acted, without the permission of Congress, and prohibits the States from discriminating against out-of-state commerce generally. That doesn't mean that all State regulation of interstate commerce is prohibited, but the State's power is sharply circumscribed by the mere designation of the federal power as well as by federal action exercising that power.
The executive does not have that power, but if Congress should pass a law regulating it, I'm pretty sure that Congress can override state commerce laws. Doubly so if the commercial transaction counts as interstate (as would happen if you bought the car on the manufacturer's website).
However that said, even if this passed, every manufacturer is so embedded in its web of dealers that any move to reconsider that relationship would cause a lot of conflict. In fact fear of that exact conflict is how we got the state laws in the first place.
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