U.S. Constitution

BUL 2241Activity 2·9 min read

Why it Matters

Every business answers to three governments at once, and their rules overlap. The Constitution divides power between the national government and the states, which is why a licensing rule comes from Tallahassee, a workplace safety rule from Washington, and a zoning rule from the county. Knowing who holds the power tells you where a compliance risk comes from and where to push when a rule needs to change. This activity has you find the official who actually holds it and write to them.

Current Context

On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court held in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose tariffs, striking down the duties the administration had imposed under that statute. The vote was 6-3, and the Congressional Research Service’s summary notes that the President then proclaimed new tariffs under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, a statute that caps a surcharge at 15 percent and 150 days, so the fight over which branch holds the tariff power moved to a new statute rather than ending. The Constitution gives that power to Congress in Article I, and the case page at SCOTUSblog traces how businesses that paid the duties took the question all the way up. Every letter you draft in this activity starts with the same question the importers asked: which government, and which branch of it, actually has the authority to act.

Key Concepts

Federalism

The structure that divides power between the federal government and the states. A business complies with two sets of laws at once and has to know which government regulates each part of its operation. Guessing wrong about who has authority is how companies end up with penalties from a regulator they never considered.

Commerce Clause

Article I gives Congress the power to regulate commerce among the several states. Courts have read that power broadly, so it is the constitutional basis for most federal business regulation, from environmental standards to workplace safety and employment discrimination. When a federal agency reaches into a local operation, this clause is usually why it can.

Police Powers

The broad authority reserved to the states to protect the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of their residents. It is the source of most day-to-day business regulation: professional licensing, zoning, employment rules, and consumer protection. It is also why doing business in Florida looks different from doing business in Georgia.

Supremacy Clause and Preemption

Article VI makes valid federal law the supreme law of the land when it conflicts with state law. Preemption is the doctrine that follows: a federal rule can override a state or local one, so that on that issue the federal rule is the only one a business must follow. Compliance officers spend a lot of time deciding which rule governs when two of them collide.

Separation of Powers

Government authority is split among the legislative branch, which makes laws, the executive branch, which enforces them, and the judicial branch, which interprets them. Congress passes a statute affecting an industry, an agency writes the detailed regulations, and a court decides whether they were applied lawfully. Knowing which branch is acting tells you who can check it.

Enumerated and Reserved Powers

The federal government has only the powers the Constitution lists, and the Tenth Amendment reserves the rest to the states or the people. That is the rule behind every question in this activity: if a power is not enumerated, the federal government does not have it. The line is contested, which is why the Commerce Clause cases matter so much.

Resources

Very Brief Introduction: Constitutional Law (Professor Nate’s short overview of the topics in this activity; watch it first.)
Federalism: Crash Course Government and Politics (A fast explanation of how power is split between the states and the national government.)
Wheat, Weed, and ObamaCare: How the Commerce Clause Made Congress All-Powerful (The leading Commerce Clause cases in one video; useful before sorting your issue in Part 1.)
Find and contact elected officials, USA.gov (The federal, state, and local lookup you use in Part 1 to identify the right official.)
Find Your Legislators, Florida Senate (Address lookup for your state senator, if your issue is a state matter.)
Find Your Representative, Florida House of Representatives (Address lookup for your state representative.)
Commerce Clause, Cornell Wex (A plain-English account of the clause and how far courts have let it reach.)
Article VI, U.S. Constitution, Cornell LII (The text of the Supremacy Clause.)
Tenth Amendment, U.S. Constitution, Cornell LII (The text that reserves unlisted powers to the states.)
Preemption, Cornell Wex (The kinds of preemption and how a court decides whether federal law displaces state law.)

What to Do

This activity has you locate the government with power over an issue you care about and then write to the official who holds it. You will sort the issue into federal, state, or local authority, draft a professional letter with a specific request, and test the letter’s target, tone, and timing before you post it. The letter you write is the kind a business sends when a rule is hurting it.

Part 1: Sort the Issue and Find the Official

Pick a business or community issue that matters to you personally or professionally. Run the Jurisdiction Sorter and let it question you until the issue is narrow enough to act on, then work with it to decide whether the issue falls under federal, state, or local authority and why. Once you know which government holds the power, find the actual official using the USA.gov lookup or the Florida Senate and House finders in Resources. Write down the official’s name, position, and level of government before you draft anything.

Part 2: Draft and Review the Letter

Use the Letter Drafter to write a respectful, professional letter of 200 to 300 words that sounds like you and ends with a specific request the official can act on. Then hand the draft to the Letter Evaluator and ask the hard questions: is this official the one with authority over the issue, is the request clear and realistic, and does the letter explain why the issue matters to you without reading like a form letter? Revise until the answers are yes.

Part 3: Check the Timing

Before you finalize, run the Timing Strategist. It will help you think about what this official is likely to care about given their role and stated priorities, and whether an upcoming vote, legislative session, comment period, or news event makes this a good moment to send the letter. Confirm any date or event it mentions on the official’s own website, because a letter that cites a hearing that never happened does more harm than no letter at all. Adjust the framing of your letter to fit what you confirm.

Part 4: Post Your Deliverable

Post a new thread that opens with a short introductory paragraph in prose naming the official, their level of government, and their specific position (for example, a U.S. Senator for Florida or the Mayor of Port Orange), and explaining briefly why this issue is important to you. Below the introduction, paste the final 200 to 300 word text of your letter.

Include one AI chat link with a 1–2 sentence explanation of what the conversation shows and why you chose to share it.

Suggested AI Prompts

Use these prompts as a starting point, then adjust them to fit your goal. Strong prompting develops through trial, revision, and testing. It’s a foundational skill that grows into more advanced AI work such as context engineering and agent-based workflows.

Jurisdiction Sorter

Act as a constitutional law expert. I want to write a letter to an elected official about an issue that matters to me, and I need help shaping it from the start. Guide me step by step. First ask me questions that clarify the issue and why it matters to me personally or professionally. Then help me narrow it until it is timely and specific, with a request an official could actually act on. Once the issue is defined, help me decide whether it falls under federal, state, or local authority and explain the constitutional basis for your answer. After that, help me identify the kind of official with authority to act and how to look them up. Pause after each step and wait for my input before continuing. At the end, give me a short summary of my position and who I should contact.

Socratic elicitation: the prompt makes the model ask before it answers, and the instruction to pause after each step keeps it from sprinting to a conclusion. You do the sorting; the AI supplies the framework and the follow-up questions.

Letter Drafter

Act as a professional communications director. I am ready to write a letter of 200 to 300 words to an elected official and want your help drafting it. The letter should be respectful and professional, sound like me rather than a form letter, follow a clear structure, and end with one specific request the official can act on. It should explain why the issue matters and include brief personal context about who I am. Start by asking me for the official’s name and title, a summary of the issue, and any experiences or points I want to include. Then use that input to draft a letter I can send with confidence.

Role assignment plus a structured intake. Asking the model to collect the official, the issue, and your own details before it writes keeps the draft grounded in your facts instead of generic filler, which is the difference between a letter that gets read and one that gets skimmed.

Letter Evaluator

Act as an experienced chief of staff to an elected official. I have drafted a letter about a business or community issue and need a hard review. When I share it, assess whether I am addressing the right official, meaning someone with actual authority to act on the issue, and whether my request is clear and realistic. Check that the tone is respectful and sounds like a real person rather than a form letter, and that the letter explains why the issue matters to me. Then give me direct feedback and specific suggestions for anything that could be clearer or more persuasive.

Evaluation against named criteria. Handing the model a checklist (right official, clear request, authentic tone, stated stakes) and a critical persona produces a review you can act on, instead of the vague praise a model gives when simply asked what it thinks.

Timing Strategist

Act as a seasoned political strategist and lobbyist. Before I send my letter to an elected official, help me think about how to make it persuasive and well timed. Based on this official’s role and stated priorities, tell me what they are likely to care about and how I might frame my message to align with those interests. Then help me decide whether now is a good time to send it: are there upcoming votes, legislative sessions, public comment periods, or news events related to my issue? If you cannot verify a date or event, say so plainly rather than guessing, because I will confirm anything you cite on the official’s own website before I use it.

Red-teaming the timing rather than the argument. The closing instruction is the responsible-use move: models will invent a plausible hearing date if you let them, so you make the AI flag uncertainty and you verify every event against the primary source.