John Conyers: “I would close by merely reminding everyone that these two cases, which both cite very clearly and unambiguously that…”

“I would close by merely reminding everyone that these two cases, which both cite very clearly and unambiguously that they are not limited to the Commerce clause or any other particular part of the Constitution, require that the statute must cite the authority. The role of the Federal Government with respect to State functions must be made clear and explicit. The jurisdictional requirement has to be satisfied. I submit to my friends that this is one of the few cases, few bills I have ever seen come to the floor that does not cite any authority, whatsoever. Now, it may be that in the haste of the moment, this is a bill that has not been before the Committee on the Judiciary, so maybe my colleagues forgot. We are dealing with a bill that was introduced on July 19, 2000. That was a few days ago. So that may be the problem.”