Also known as: enumerate powers · enumerated power · enumerating powers · enumeration of powers · express powers
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Specific powers granted to the federal government by the Constitution in Article I Section 8 and elsewhere. These powers confine Congress to legislating only within the listed subjects or through auxiliary means that execute them rather than conferring general authority over domestic affairs.
Congress charters a national bank to facilitate collection of federal taxes and borrowing. A state attempts to tax the bank's operations. The charter is upheld because it supplies a means rationally related to executing the enumerated powers to tax and borrow money.
Congress criminalizes possession of a firearm in a school zone. A student is prosecuted under the statute. The law is invalidated because possession near schools is not economic activity that substantially affects interstate commerce under any enumerated power.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
A city condemns private homes to transfer the land to a pharmaceutical company for job creation. Homeowners sue claiming the taking exceeds federal authority. The action is sustained only if it rests on an enumerated power such as the spending or commerce power rather than a general police power.
Congress enacts a statute allowing one house to override an executive deportation suspension. An alien whose suspension is vetoed challenges the procedure. The veto is invalidated because it alters rights created by statute without bicameral passage and presentment required for exercises of enumerated legislative power.
A state statute prohibits physicians from prescribing medication to hasten death. Terminally ill patients argue the ban violates a fundamental liberty interest. The prohibition is sustained because no enumerated federal power creates a right to assisted suicide that would preempt state law.
Congress charters a corporation to produce standardized components for military equipment. A private manufacturer challenges the charter as lacking constitutional foundation. The charter is valid because it implements the enumerated powers to raise armies and regulate commerce through an appropriate corporate instrument.
The Clause authorizes Congress to select means that are plainly adapted to executing its enumerated powers. It does not create independent substantive authority.
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The statute is invalid because the federal government possesses only those powers delegated by the Constitution. Courts invalidate measures that effectively grant Congress a general police power.
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Yes. An individual defendant may raise a Tenth Amendment or federalism challenge when the federal statute intrudes on powers reserved to the states, provided the defendant shows injury in fact and redressability.
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No. Congress may charter corporations when doing so constitutes a convenient means to carry enumerated powers such as defense procurement or interstate commerce regulation into execution.
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…of the people. Its powers are granted by them, and are to be exercised directly on them for their benefit. This Government is of enumerated powers, but the question of the extent of powers actually granted is perpetual and must be settled by fair construction of the whole instrument. If any proposition could command universal assent…