(5) To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of
Weights and Measures;
COMMENTARY:
From this section, along with the section that allows the Congress to regulate commerce
and to borrow money, Congress gets its right to charter national banks and to establish the Federal
Reserve System.
(6) To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the
United States;
COMMENTARY:
Securities are government bonds.
(7) To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
(8) To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to
Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
COMMENTARY:
Books, music, photographs, videotape, digital video discs (DVD), and films may be
copyrighted under this rule.
(9) To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
COMMENTARY:
Examples of federal courts “inferior to the Supreme Court” include the United States
district courts and United States Courts of Appeals.
(10) To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences
against the Law of Nations;
COMMENTARY:
Congress, rather than the states, has jurisdiction over crimes committed at sea.
(11) To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning
Captures on Land and Water;
COMMENTARY:
Only Congress can declare war. However, the President, as Commander-in-Chief,
has engaged the United States in wars without a formal declaration of war by Congress.
Undeclared wars include the Korean War (1950-1953), the Vietnam War (1957-1975), and the
Gulf Wars (1991, 2003).
Letters of marque and reprisal are documents that authorize private vessels to attack
enemy shipping. They are no longer issued.