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What Spending Clause? (Or The President's Paramour): An Examination Of The Views Of Hamilton, Madison, And Story On Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 Of The United States Constitution, Jeffrey T. Renz

Faculty Law Review Articles

This article tests three interpretations of the General Welfare Clause that persisted prior to the U.S. v. Butler decision against the text of the Constitution and discusses historical conditions that add to the understanding of that clause of the U.S. Constitution. Specifically, the author examines: the "strong" Hamiltonian interpretation, the Madison interpretation, and the "weak" Hamiltonian or Story interpretation. The author concludes that in the course of testing each hypothesis, a surprising conclusion was reached: all interpretations failed to survive.