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Title: Weights And Measures Enforcement In The United States
Author: Richard N. Smith
Source: 1975 International School of Hydrocarbon Measurement
Year Published: 1975
Abstract: The history of weights and measures enforcement in the United States is roughly parallel to the history of the United States as a nation. In the Articles of Confederation, ratified by the colonies in 1781, there is found the authority for Congress to fix the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States. This same authority is found in Section 8, Article 1 of the Constitution and became effective in 1789. Also found in the same section is the power to regulate commerce among the States and to regulate coinage. The power to fix the standard of weights and measures is a very broad and unrestricted authority and is known as the weights and measures clause of the Constitution. When Congress acts under this authority, it legislates for the country as a whole without regard to State boundaries. Therefore, the majority of Federal weights and measures laws is interstate rather than intrastate in their application. In order to cover intrastate commerce with the same provisions, the common expedient has been to cause enactment as State statutes of the appropriate provisions of the Federal acts.

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