LA Bar Federal Law 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under the Dormant Commerce Clause, a state law that facially discriminates against interstate commerce is subject to which standard of review?
- Rational basis review
- Strict scrutiny and is virtually per se invalid (Correct answer)
- Intermediate scrutiny
- Balancing test weighing state interests against burden on commerce
Correct answer: Strict scrutiny and is virtually per se invalid
Facially discriminatory state laws that favor in-state commerce over out-of-state commerce are subject to strict scrutiny and are virtually per se unconstitutional under the Dormant Commerce Clause.
Question 2: Congress attaches conditions on federal highway funds requiring states to set the minimum drinking age at 21. Under which constitutional provision is this authorized?
- Commerce Clause
- Necessary and Proper Clause
- Spending Clause (Correct answer)
- Fourteenth Amendment, Section 5
Correct answer: Spending Clause
Congress's power to attach conditions to federal grants to states derives from the Spending Clause (Article I, Section 8), as upheld in South Dakota v. Dole.
Question 3: When a state law directly conflicts with a federal statute such that it is impossible to comply with both, the result is:
- The state law is suspended until Congress acts
- The federal law is preempted by state police powers
- The state law is void under the Supremacy Clause conflict preemption doctrine (Correct answer)
- Courts apply the more recently enacted law
Correct answer: The state law is void under the Supremacy Clause conflict preemption doctrine
Under conflict preemption, when compliance with both state and federal law is impossible, the Supremacy Clause renders the state law void.
Question 4: The Necessary and Proper Clause gives Congress the power to:
- Enact laws on any subject as long as a majority of states approve
- Choose any means rationally related to executing an enumerated power (Correct answer)
- Override state laws whenever Congress deems it necessary
- Create federal common law in areas of exclusive federal jurisdiction
Correct answer: Choose any means rationally related to executing an enumerated power
Under McCulloch v. Maryland, the Necessary and Proper Clause allows Congress to use any means reasonably adapted to carrying out an enumerated power, even if that means is not explicitly listed.
Question 5: A self-executing treaty that conflicts with a later-enacted federal statute will:
- Always prevail because treaties are supreme law of the land
- Be superseded by the later statute under the last-in-time rule (Correct answer)
- Require a two-thirds Senate vote to be superseded
- Be voided by the President under the foreign affairs power
Correct answer: Be superseded by the later statute under the last-in-time rule
Under the last-in-time rule, a self-executing treaty and a federal statute have equal status; whichever was enacted most recently controls.
Question 6: Congress passes a law requiring states to conduct background checks for private gun sales. Under the anti-commandeering doctrine, this law is:
- Valid because gun regulation affects interstate commerce
- Valid as a necessary and proper exercise of the commerce power
- Unconstitutional because Congress cannot compel states to enforce federal law (Correct answer)
- Valid only if the states consented by accepting federal funds
Correct answer: Unconstitutional because Congress cannot compel states to enforce federal law
Under Printz v. United States, the anti-commandeering doctrine prohibits Congress from compelling state executive officers to administer or enforce a federal regulatory program.
Question 7: Under the Commerce Clause after Lopez and Morrison, which of the following can Congress NOT regulate?
- The sale of goods that have traveled in interstate commerce
- Economic activity that substantially affects interstate commerce in the aggregate
- Non-economic, purely local activity based solely on attenuated effects on commerce (Correct answer)
- Navigation and waterways used in interstate commerce
Correct answer: Non-economic, purely local activity based solely on attenuated effects on commerce
After United States v. Lopez and United States v. Morrison, Congress lacks Commerce Clause power to regulate non-economic, purely local activity based on aggregated effects alone.
LA Bar Federal Law 2
Under the Dormant Commerce Clause, a state law that facially discriminates against interstate commerce is subject to which standard of review?