Top Five Constitutional Citations of the 112th Congress

Brittany Baldwin / February 16, 2011

When Members of the 112^th Congress took the oath of office just over a month ago, the leaders of the House brought new meaning to their duty to “support and defend the Constitution.” As promised in their “Pledge to America,” they passed a rule requiring members to cite the specific constitutional authority in each bill they propose. In passing the Constitutional Authority rule, they intended to reign in unconstitutional legislation and to spark debate about what is constitutional—and indeed the reform has begun, bringing out both the best and worst of the legislative process. Heritage has done the grunt work by actually tracking which parts of the Constitution Congress has cited for the first 450 bills introduced in the House. So what clauses have made it to the top of the charts?

5. The Rules and Regulation Clause: Sliding into fifth place is Article 1, Section 8, Clause 14 with 34 citations. As Joseph Story explains, the Founders added this provision to establish a justice system for the military outside of civil court. Now we have discovered that Congress has cited it for purposes reaching beyond military justice. Some interesting examples include citations that provide benefits for merchant marines, amend the Clean Air Act, and give game law enforcement officers in the Department of Defense the authority to execute warrants, make arrests, and carry firearms. (more…)