Section 3: Other Expressed Powers

Objectives: * Identify the key sources of Congress’s foreign relations powers. * Describe the power-sharing arrangement between Congress and the President on the issues of war and national defense. * List other key powers exercised by Congress.

* The Constitution grants a number of other very important powers to Congress. * For example, US Mail Foreign Relations Powers * The National Government has greater powers in the field of foreign affairs than in any other area. * The President is responsible for the conduct with relations with other nations. * States are not sovereign and have no standing international law.

* The foreign relations powers of Congress come from two sources 1] from various expressed powers, especially the war powers and the power to regulate foreign commerce. 2] from the fact that the United States is a sovereign state in the world community. * Congress has the power to act on matters affecting the security of the nation.

War Powers * Eight of the expressed powers given to Congress deal with war and national defense. * They share the power with the commander in chief – The President. * ONLY Congress may declare war on another country. * It has the power to raise an army and maintain a navy, and make rules pertaining to the governing of land and naval forces.

* The War Powers Resolution in 1775, Congress claimed the power to restrict the use of American forces in combat in areas where a state of war does not exist. Other Expressed Powers * The Constitution sets out a number of other expressed powers 1] Naturalization – the process by which citizens of one country become citizens of another country.

> Naturalization – is this process > Congress has the exclusive power to establish an uniform rule of naturalization. 2] The Postal Power > Congress has the power to establish Post Offices and post roads > Post roads are all postal routes including railroads, airways and waterways within the united States, during the time that mail is being carried on them.

> Ben Franklin is credited with founding the Post Office of the US. > Congress has established a number of postal crimes in our country. +no one can obstruct the mail +no one can use the mail to commit fraud +no one can use the mail to commit any other crime +many items are prohibited from being mailed

3] Copyrights and Patents > The Constitutions gives Congress the power to “promote the progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors exclusive rights to their respective writings and discoveries”. > A copyright is an exclusive right of an author to reproduce, publish, or sell their creative work.

> Copyrights are registered by the Copyright Office in the Library of Congress. > They cover a wide range of creative efforts. +books+ magazines + newspapers+ lyrics/songs + musical compositions + paintings + cartoons+maps +sculptures+ photographs

> Copyrights are not enforced. The author will have to sue in court to protect their copyright. > A patent grants a person the sole right to manufacture, use, or sell any new or useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter. > A patent is good for up to 20 years > Patents are enforced by law

4] Weights and Measures > Congress has the power to “fix the Standard of Weights and Measures” throughout the United States. > In 1838, Congress set the English system of pound, ounce, mile, foot, gallon, quart, and etc as the legal standards of weights and measures.

5] Power over Territories and Other Areas > Congress has the power to acquire, manage, and dispose of various federal areas. > Those areas include the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. > It covers hundreds of miles of military and naval installations, dockyards, post offices, prisons, parks, and forest preserves, and federal buildings.

> The Federal Government may acquire property by purchase or gift. > It may also do so through the exercise of eminent domain the inherent power to take private property for public use. > Territory may also be acquired from a foreign state based on the power to admit new States, on the war powers and the President’s treaty-making power.

6] Judicial Powers > Part of the system of checks and balances, Congress has several judicial powers > They include… + power to create all federal courts + to define federal crimes and set punishments

* There are only 4 crimes mentioned in the Constitution 1) Counterfeiting 2) Piracies and felonies on the high seas 3) Offenses against the law of nations 4) Treason