Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act

The Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act proposes federal regulation of wages for home care workers, whose services are local and domestic, akin to internal police matters best administered by the States. In Federalist No. 17, I argued that regulations concerning the ordinary administration of justice, agriculture, and similar local concerns remain properly with State governments, as the federal authority is confined to enumerated objects affecting the whole Union. The power 'To regulate Commerce ... among the several States' (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3) does not extend to such intrastate …

The federal regulation of wages for home care workers, a matter of private employment and local labor relations, exceeds the enumerated powers of Congress. Such legislation intrudes upon the liberty of individuals to contract freely for their labor and services, reserving such authority to the States or the people. No provision in the Constitution grants Congress power over wages in domestic or intrastate employments like home care, which are not essential to interstate commerce or other delegated functions.

The proposed Act seeks to regulate wages for home care workers, a matter concerning local employment and domestic service. Such regulation falls outside the enumerated powers of Congress, which are few and defined, particularly as they pertain to commerce among the several States. Home care services are predominantly intrastate and local in character, reserved to the States. The federal government possesses no general authority over wages or labor conditions absent a clear connection to interstate commerce, and this measure appears to encroach upon the reserved powers of the States, underminin…

The Fair Wages for Home Care Workers Act seeks to regulate wages for home care workers, a matter intrinsically local and domestic in character. Such regulation does not fall within the enumerated powers of Congress, particularly the power to regulate commerce among the several states, which pertains to intercourse between states and not to internal labor conditions within a state. The necessary and proper clause cannot extend federal authority to objects not within the scope of delegated powers, as this would infringe upon powers reserved to the states. This Court possesses the duty to declare…