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