One Phase of Federal Power under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution

No clause of the Federal Constitution, making a grant of power, has, by judicial interpretation, been declared so broad and comprehensive in its scope as that clause which empowers Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several states and with the Indian tribes. In one of the very first cases in which the Supreme Court was called upon to consider the scope of this provision, it was quite properly held that under it, navigation was one of the important subjects which came within the federal power. Under it navigation was not only an important subject considered by the framers of the Constitution, as included within the scope and purpose of the provision, but there can be no doubt that under a reasonable rule of construction, it was properly held to be included therein. Some of the earlier decisions seem to indicate a disposition upon the part of the Court to give the clause a more liberal construction than would seem to be justified. As an illustration thereof, in United States v. Coombs, l it was held that Congress. might provide for the punishment of a theft of property which consisted of a part of the outfit of a wrecked ship, even though the property which had been stolen was removed from the ship, was on land when stolen, and the ship from which it was removed to the land was stranded above high tide