Abstract
The powers to tax, to spend, to regulate commerce, to wage war, to enforce prohibitions on state government actions abridging individual liberties, especially when combined with the sweeping power to enact laws that are necessary and proper for carrying those enumerated powers and any other powers of the national government into execution, create a national government of truly enormous constitutional powers. Congress has broad power to define and legislate rights against state governments that protect the privileges or immunities of national citizenship, provide for equal protection of the laws to all persons within a state, guarantee that states provide due process of law, and eradicate racial discrimination in voting.