In this episode, I examine the case that began to define and expand Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause: Gibbons v. Ogden. I talk with Lauren C. Bell, Ph.D., of the Political Science Department at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia, about the expansive Commerce Clause, what the United States would look like today without the Gibbons precedent, and how the actions of the Marshall Court "opened the door" for the expansive powers of the federal government.