The Elastic Clause

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This week, we read "Words Don't Mean What They Mean," an article that focused on how words uttered have two sides to them: their message, and the way they are conveyed. An example Pinker uses to illustrate this is "'Do you think you could pass me the salt?'" This question is extremely polite and is something you would hear at a formal dinner, yet, the message in actuality is "I want salt, so give it to me." Pinker then discusses examples with more serious implications, like diplomatic wording. Sometimes, wording can be ambiguous, leading to more conflicts, like the example of Resolution 242 he gives. This "calculated ambiguity" reminded me of something I learned in APUSH last year: the Elastic Clause.

The Necessary and Proper Clause (also known as the Elastic Clause) is a clause in the US Constitution that says "The Congress shall have Power... To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof." This became somewhat controversial because the Anti-Federalists, who believed in a weaker central government, feared that this clause would make the federal government too strong. This led to the famous conflict of the Federalists vs. the Anti-Federalists, with the Federalists supporting the Constitution and the Anti-Federalists opposing it. Eventually, this conflict was solved by the creation of a Bill of Rights, but the drama doesn't end there.

Later, the Elastic Clause was heavily debated once again, this time because of the National Bank of the United States. The opposers of the Bank said that the Constitution did not mention this power and that the federal government was abusing their power. However, the defenders of the Bank cited the Elastic Clause to justify what they had done. These are just two examples of the many conflicts that occurred over obscure wording, showing how one must be careful both in speech and in writing.

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