Stafford v. Wallace - Significance

Stafford v. Wallace marked a milestone in the Court's interpretation of the powers granted to Congress under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, Stafford expanded the "stream of commerce" doctrine introduced by Justice Holmes in Swift and Co. v. United States (1905). With Stafford, the Court determined that Congress had the further power to curb monopolistic business practices in intrastate industries that belonged to a stream of interstate commerce. As such, the case helped signal the Court's trend in the first half of the twentieth century toward an interpretation of interstate commerce favorable to the powers of the government.