Also known as: legislative jurisdictions · legislative power · legislative authority
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
A constitutional doctrine allocating lawmaking authority among the branches of the federal government. It requires that any exercise of legislative power altering rights or duties outside the legislative branch must satisfy bicameralism and presentment. The doctrine also limits Congress to auxiliary grants such as the Necessary and Proper Clause when implementing enumerated powers rather than creating freestanding substantive authority.
In conflict of laws, a state's authority to apply its substantive law to an issue or transaction. The authority exists only when the state maintains sufficient contacts with the parties or the issue so that application of its law is fair and foreseeable. This power is distinct from a court's authority to adjudicate a dispute.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
A constitutional doctrine allocating lawmaking authority among the branches of the federal government. It requires that any exercise of legislative power altering rights or duties outside the legislative branch must satisfy bicameralism and presentment. The doctrine also limits Congress to auxiliary grants such as the Necessary and Proper Clause when implementing enumerated powers rather than creating freestanding substantive authority.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Congress passed a statute authorizing the executive to approve certain infrastructure grants but reserved a one-house veto over individual approvals. After the President signed the bill, the House alone voted to block a grant to Legacy Motors. Legacy Motors sued, arguing the veto altered its legal rights without bicameral passage or presentment to the President.
Congress enacted a statute chartering Liberty Trust to centralize federal bond issuance and extend credit to interstate lenders. State officials challenged the charter as exceeding enumerated powers. The statute tied the bank's functions directly to Congress's powers to borrow money and regulate commerce.
Congress passed a statute creating a federal civil remedy for gender-motivated violence. A defendant charged under the statute moved to dismiss, contending that the provision exceeded Congress's authority to regulate interstate commerce because it addressed noneconomic local conduct.
Any exercise of legislative power that alters rights or duties outside Congress must satisfy bicameralism and presentment. A one-house veto of executive action bypasses these requirements and is therefore invalid.
Supporting sources
No. The Clause is auxiliary and permits Congress to select means for executing enumerated powers. It does not authorize freestanding substantive legislation detached from those powers.
Supporting sources
In conflict of laws, a state's authority to apply its substantive law to an issue or transaction. The authority exists only when the state maintains sufficient contacts with the parties or the issue so that application of its law is fair and foreseeable. This power is distinct from a court's authority to adjudicate a dispute.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
California prosecuted a defendant for murder without first obtaining a grand-jury indictment. The defendant argued that due process required the traditional common-law indictment procedure. The state applied its own statutory charging rules because it possessed legislative jurisdiction over the prosecution.
A Pennsylvania plaintiff sued an out-of-state railroad in federal court for injuries occurring in Pennsylvania. The railroad argued that federal general common law should govern the duty of care. The court applied Pennsylvania's negligence standard because that state possessed legislative jurisdiction over the accident.
Legislative jurisdiction concerns a state's power to apply its substantive law to an issue or transaction. Judicial jurisdiction concerns a court's power to bind parties or adjudicate disputes. The two inquiries are distinct even when both arise in the same multistate case.
Supporting sources
A state lacks legislative jurisdiction when it has insufficient contacts with the parties or the issue so that application of its law would be unfair or unforeseeable. Due process supplies the outer constitutional limit on that authority.
Supporting sources
…security. See id. , §97, at 49. Upon consenting to that order, men obtained civil liberty, or the freedom “to be under no other legislative power but that established by consent in the commonwealth; nor under the dominion of any will or restraint of any law, but what that legislative shall enact according to the trust put in it.”…
…to operate, even though the state rule reflected policy considerations which, under Erie , would lie within the realm of state legislative authority. It remains to apply what has been said to the present case. The Massachusetts rule provides that an executor need not answer suits unless in-hand service was made upon him or notice of…
…or otherwise incorrect. The laws of a state are more usually understood to mean the rules and enactments promulgated by the legislative authority thereof, or long established local customs having the force of laws. In all the various cases, which have hitherto come before us for decision, this Court have uniformly supposed, that the…
…considered judgment that politics, not judicial review, should mediate between state and national interests as the strength and legislative jurisdiction of the National Government inevitably increased through the expected growth of the national economy.[^maj-23] Whereas today's majority takes a leaf from the book of the old judicial…
…process of law must mean something more than the actual existing law of the land, for otherwise it would be no restraint upon legislative power
Vermont voters approved a redistricting plan that split a tourism corridor across three districts to favor one party. A hospitality association sued, claiming the plan violated the Guarantee Clause by displacing legislative authority. The court considered whether the claim presented a justiciable question of legislative power allocation.
Certain challenges to the allocation of legislative power, such as Guarantee Clause claims or partisan-gerrymandering claims, present nonjusticiable political questions. Courts lack judicially manageable standards to resolve them and must leave resolution to the political branches.