ANSWERS TO
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

1.   D   Under the Supremacy Clause an otherwise valid state statute may be superseded by federal legislation to the extent that the two are inconsistent. The contract to kill feral tuskers in the national park was authorized by federal statutes. Since the Property clause gives Congress the power to control federal property, the federal statutes are valid, and so the state law which prohibits their killing is superseded, at least as to killings within the national park.

The power to protect the environment is held by both the federal and state governments, so states do have the power to declare a species to be endangered and to enact legislation protecting it. A is, therefore, incorrect. Since the Tuscalona statute prohibits the killing of feral tuskers only within the state, and since there is no indication that anyone other than Termine is interested in coming from outside the state to kill them or that killing them is commerce, the statute probably does not unduly interfere with interstate commerce. B is, therefore, incorrect. The Obligation of Contracts Clause prevents the state from interfering with rights acquired under existing contracts, but does not prevent the state from prohibiting activities which parties might otherwise contract to perform. C is, therefore, incorrect.

2. A    Under the Commerce Clause, Congress has the power to regulate commerce among the states. The Necessary and Proper Clause permits Congress to do whatever is reasonably necessary to the exercise of its enumerated powers. The Supreme Court has held that if in the aggregate a particular industry has an impact on interstate commerce, Congress may regulate even those aspects of it which are completely intrastate. See, e.g., Wickard v. Filburn (1942): Congress can set quotas on how much wheat an individual farmer (P) may grow for consumption by his family, because such wheat-growing decisions by many individuals, each of whom is acting solely intra-state, cumulatively affect the interstate price of wheat.

B is incorrect because no provision of the United States Constitution gives Congress the power to legislate for the general welfare (i.e., federal police power). C is incorrect because the congressional power to regulate commerce is limited to interstate commerce, or at least to trade which has an impact on interstate commerce. D is a correct statement, but would not furnish an argument in support of the constitutionality of the statute in question since the statute regulates “every purchase of an automobile in the United States,” and this may include those which are sold domestically and intrastate.