Real bill currently in Congress c/o HR/119/10119
Protecting Local Control of Data Centers Act
Latest action (2026-08-20): Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The Framers
“Founders’ Verdict”
Confidence 1.00
Synthesis
Unanimous (4-0): The 'Protecting Local Control of Data Centers Act' is constitutional only conditionally. All four voices concur that Congress may lawfully decline preemption, confer discretionary authority, or condition federal action/benefits upon genuine local choice regarding data center siting and land use, resting on the Commerce Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3), the Necessary and Proper Clause (Article I, Section 8, Clause 18), and the taxing/spending power (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1). However, the Act becomes UNCONSTITUTIONAL if it (a) directly commands state legislatures or municipalities to enact, enforce, or administer a federal regulatory scheme, violating the principle that laws of the Union must operate upon individuals rather than States in their corporate capacity; (b) subordinates valid federal law to local ordinance contrary to the Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2); or (c) regulates facilities whose operations are wholly intrastate without commercial nexus, exceeding the commerce power as bounded by Gibbons v. Ogden. A material caveat shared by Madison, Jefferson, and Marshall: only the bill's title was before the tribunal, so final judgment awaits examination of operative text.
The measure styled the Protecting Local Control of Data Centers Act contains no inherent infirmity, yet its constitutionality turns entirely upon the mechanism by which it confers or restores local authority. Congress possesses plenary power to regulate commerce among the several States (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3), and establishments for computation are manifestly instruments of such commerce, conveying intelligence across State lines as surely as any canal or turnpike conveys goods. It follows that Congress might regulate these facilities directly, and through the Necessary and Proper Cl…
The foundation of our compact of union is this: the general government possesses only those powers expressly granted in Article I, Section 8, while all others remain 'reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.' The siting of buildings upon the soil, the ordering of towns and counties, and the regulation of local enterprise are acts of municipal self-government never surrendered to Congress. A bill bearing the title 'Protecting Local Control of Data Centers Act' is therefore consonant with the Constitution only insofar as its true operation is to withdraw the hand of federal interfe…
Only the title of this measure lies before me; no operative text has been furnished, and therefore no definitive judgment can issue. Two principles must govern its assessment. First, the legislative power of Congress extends only to objects enumerated in Article I, Section 8; the siting of buildings, the ordering of land, and the government of municipalities are incidents of that internal police which the Tenth Amendment reserves to the States respectively, or to the people. Should this Act proceed by direct mandate upon towns and counties, compelling or forbidding their determinations, it wou…
The Court is presented with a measure known to us only by its title, 'Protecting Local Control of Data Centers Act,' referred to committee. Its constitutionality cannot be pronounced absolutely, for we must examine the act itself, not merely its name. Let the end be legitimate, and all means appropriate and plainly adapted to that end, not prohibited by the Constitution, and consistent with its letter and spirit, and the act will stand; this is the rule of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). Two inquiries therefore present themselves. First, does Congress possess the power to act at all? The power t…
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