Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States case brief

Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States case brief summary
379 U.S. 241 (1964)

CASE SYNOPSIS
Appellant motel, which discriminated in the renting of its rooms on the basis of race, sought review by certiorari of a judgment from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by attacking the constitutionality of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 241, 243.

CASE FACTS
The motel, which discriminated in the renting of its rooms on the basis of race, sought review of a judgment by attacking the constitutionality of Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The motel contended that in enacting the statute Congress exceeded its power to regulate commerce under the Commerce Clause, U.S. Constitutional art I, § 8, cl. 3, and violated the Fifthand Thirteenth Amendments.


DISCUSSION

  • Affirming the judgment, the Court held that the power of Congress over interstate commerce extended to those intrastate activities that so affected interstate commerce or the exercise of Congressional power over it to make regulation of them an appropriate means to exercise its power over interstate commerce. 
  • Further, the power of Congress to promote interstate commerce also included the power to regulate the local incidents thereof, including local activities in both the state of origin and destination, which might have a substantial and harmful effect upon that commerce. 
  • Accordingly, Congress was within its power to prohibit racial discrimination by motels serving travelers, however local their operations appeared.
CONCLUSION

The Court affirmed the lower court's judgment.

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