New! H2O now has access to new and up-to-date cases via CourtListener and the Caselaw Access Project. Click here for more info.

Main Content

Casebook Read Credits
Principles of Insurance Law and Regulation
Resource 5 . 2 . 2
half an hour

United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Ass'n

Seth J. Chandler

1. What are the two arguments present in this case?

2. Who has the better of the constitutional argument? The statutory interpretation argument?

3. There are two consequences of declaring that insurance can be interstate commerce. The first is that Congress can regulate it; the second is that the states are subject to the dormant commerce clause. What follows from subjecting a state to the dormant commerce clause?

3. What do you make of the regulatory reliance argument set forth by the dissent? Why might it be particularly difficult for Congress to fill the regulatory vacuum created by this decision?

Supreme Court of the United States
322 U.S. 533, 88 L. Ed. 1440, 64 S. Ct. 1162, 1944 U.S. LEXIS 1199, SCDB 1943-039
No. 354
1944-06-05

This book, and all H2O books, are Creative Commons licensed for sharing and re-use with the exception of certain excerpts. Any excerpts from the Restatements of the Law, Principles of the Law, and the Model Penal Code are copyright by The American Law Institute. Excerpts are reproduced with permission, not as part of a Creative Commons license.