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affecting commerce

Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court

Definitions from Case Law

From 301 U.S. 1 - National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. · 1937Most cited · 4,480 citing opinions

The term 'affecting commerce' means in commerce, or burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce, or having led or tending to lead to a labor dispute burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce.

How the Supreme Court has restated “affecting commerce”

19371940195019601963 most cited: 301 U.S. 1 - National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. (1937)
first statedrestated (same sense)

Each Supreme Court definition of “affecting commerce,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.

How often courts cite the cases defining “affecting commerce”

19301940196019802000202020301.3k

Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “affecting commerce” — 5,823 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.

All 3 definitions, chronological · 1937–1963

  1. 1939·306 U.S. 601 - NLRB v. Fain-Blatt[p10]· cited 868×

    in commerce, or burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce, or having led or tending to lead to a labor dispute burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce

  2. The term 'affecting commerce' means in commerce, or burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce, or having led or tending to lead to a labor dispute burdening or obstructing commerce or the free flow of commerce.