Exam 4: The Constitution: Focus on Application to Business

The Supreme Court strikes down state laws that are found to restrict interstate commerce.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to tax in:

Congress may not impose regulations on a particular industry that have a primary impact in one state.

Due process under the 14th Amendment may be violated when state action either shocks the conscience or offends judicial notions of fairness and human dignity.

When a newspaper criticizes a commercial entity such as a business, the business must be able to prove negligence to recover damages for a defamatory falsehood.

"...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." is part of:

The traditional primary use of the Fifth Amendment's just compensation (takings) clause is to require the government to pay:

Commercial speech, in contrast to political speech, may be regulated if it:

In New York v. Burger, a junkyard owner claimed that a New York statute permitting warrantless searches of junkyards was a violation of the 4th Amendment. The Supreme Court held that the statute was:

A state law prohibiting anonymous communications on the internet (such as sending spam from unidentified sources) was stricken as a violation of the First Amendment.

The ____ clause of the Constitution give Congress the authority to make laws to carry out the powers granted to Congress in the Constitution.

Congress passed the Communications Decency Act to restrict child pornography on the Internet. When it reviewed the constitutionality of the statute, the Supreme Court held the law to be:

Improperly gathered evidence violates:

In Wickard v. Filburn the Supreme Court held that Congress has the constitutional authority to regulate agricultural production even if the output is not sold into commerce.

A person caught taking over $350,000, in cash, out of the country without reporting the fact to the government was required by the Supreme Court to forfeit the cash to the government; it was not an excessive fine in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government the power to:

Fact Pattern 4-1 You own Priscilla's Pecans. You employ five people and sell your pecan products in one town in Georgia. Your products are not sold in any other state. The federal government imposes regulations on the pecan industry. The Georgia legislature issues its own safety laws that are stricter than the federal rules. Georgia also places a tax on pecan products made out-of-state because it fears those products will not be as safe as those produced in Georgia under the strict Georgia regulations. The regulations raise the cost of doing business. To register your unhappiness with the Georgia regulations you attach a label to your products that alerts customers to the rules and expresses your view that the rules are unnecessary and too costly. You donate $10,000 to the campaign of Lucinda Snopes, a friend who is running for the legislature. She opposes the pecan law. Buddy Reeves, the county attorney, reads the label criticizing the new safety regulations. He draws up a complaint against you and against Priscilla's for distributing inflammatory statements in commerce. He instructs the sheriff to seize your products in order to stop distribution of your statement, which the sheriff does. You contact attorney Travis Shifflett and ask him to represent you. -Refer to Fact Pattern 4-1. Georgia may pass pecan regulations for Georgia producers that are stricter than the federal regulations so long as:

The state of Virginia did not violate the equal protection clause of the Constitution by having an all male military academy because it offered alternative choices for women students.

The Supreme Court has gradually moved more and more to restrict political speech by commercial interests.

The ____ Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives the federal government the power to impose income taxes.