occurred on april 12 1937 in a case call nlrb versus jones and lofton steel. basically any activity said to affect interstate commerce in a are considerable substantial way is subject to congressional authority. so on the specific federal power under commerce, you would like see it go back to about 1936? i m not sure that s possible at this point. you have to start with the government that you have. i think it is important to have some limit on government power. reporter: he s in a debate on how far judges should go back to roll back the national regulatory power. lee concedes some of the new deals labor protections should remain on the books. you re talking about a lot of the era of the supreme court often called the loughner era