Other Expressed Powers

Foreign Relations Powers

• Congress gets its foreign relations powers from two sources

1. Expressed powers such as war powers and the power to regulate foreign commerce

2. The fact that the US is a sovereign state in the world community

The Postal Power

• Congress has the power “to establish Post Offices and post Roads”

• Ben Franklin created the first Post Office

• A crime against the mail is a Federal Crime

• States cannot tax post offices

Copyrights and Patents

• Copyright - The exclusive right of an author to reproduce, publish, and sell his or her creative work

• Copyrights are registered in the Library of Congress, and they are good for the life of the author plus 70 years for works created after 1978

• For works before 1978, it was the author’s life plus 95 years

  • After this time is up, the rights go to the public domain

• Copyright violations are handled in Federal Courts

• Patent - Grants a person the sole right to manufacture, or sell any product he or she invents

• Patents are good for 20 years

• Eminent Domain - The inherent power to take private property for public use

  • Established in the 5th Amendment

Judicial Powers

• Congress has the power to create all of the federal courts below the Supreme Court

• Congress has the power to define federal crimes and set punishment

1. Counterfeiting

2. Piracy

3. Felonies on the high seas, and offences against international law

4. Treason